196 The Ottawa Naturalist. 



NOTES ON THE FLORA OF ONTARIO. 



By John Macoun. m. a., f. l. s. 



I 



The Geological Survey Department lias published, during the past 

 ten years, a catalogue of Canadian plants in six parts. The scope of 

 this catalogue was restricted to a bare record of the localities at which 

 our Canadian plants were know to occur with an occasion il description 

 of a new species or a note on specific ot varietal differences, peculiarity 

 of habit, etc. I had hoped for many years that some botanist residing 

 in Ontario would make a special study of the plants of that province, 

 and give the results of his work to the scientific public. Nothing 

 of this kind has been done, however, and apparently nothing is 

 contemplated. At the repeated solicitation of those who feel the 

 need of such work, I have decided to utilize my holidays and such time 

 as can be spared from my regular duties, in studying and collecting the 

 flora of Ontario. Much has, of course, already been done, but next 

 spring I shall set to work systematically to accumulate material and 

 describe our plants in such a manner that the field botanist may 

 eventually have a field book for field work. Should I not be spared to 

 complete the work, the result of my labors will be kept in such a con- 

 dition that any competent botanist can continue and complete what I 

 have begun. 



My experience as a teacher of botany and the difficulty I have often 

 had in determining plants from descriptions alone, have shown me that 

 amateur botanists and botanical students have a much greater excuse 

 than they themselves suppose, for their frequent inability to name 

 correctly the plants they collect. This difficulty almost invariably arises 

 from inadequate or misleading descriptions and a failure on the part of 

 those who write them to clearly state the essential differences between 

 the species they describe and nearly related ones ; old names and old 

 descriptions are also frequently made to include plants they were never 

 intended to cover and which should be re-described and occasionally 

 renamed. 



