288 TUB CANADIAN KNToMuLOOIST. 



of his society and help, he would always look back to the pleasant 

 intercourse of the years they spent together. Such a life as his was will 

 be a lasting influence for good. Having by this memorial striven to show 

 our appreciation of our late friend's character and work, we may honour 

 him still further by endeavoring to maintain and advance those sciences 

 to the promotion of which so much of his life was so enthusiastically 

 devoted. 



Dr. W. 1). Le.Sueur, Hon. .Secretary of the Royal Society, in paying 

 his tribute to the late Dr. Fletcher, said that the ceremony in which we are 

 engaging to-day, the duty we are fulfilling towards the memory of our 

 departed and deeply-lamented friend, is one in which the Royal Society of 

 Canada may very fittingly take a part. It was early in the history of the 

 Society — at its third annual meeting in the year 1885 — that the name of 

 James F'letcher was enrolled in its list of members. His zeal and his 

 attainments as a practical botanist and entomologist had already attracted 

 the attention of the leading men of Section I\'., the .Section devoted to 

 the biological sciences ; and they gave him a warm welcome to their 

 ranks. It is almost needless to add that he did not regard his election in 

 the light of an idle decoration ; he saw in it rather a cill to work 

 and duty, and he took at once an active part in the labours of his 

 Section, of which nine years later he was elected President. The address 

 which he delivered in that capacity dealt with the subject of practical 

 entomology. The turn of his mind was at all times practical. He was 

 one of those men who see things to do, and who do them. He was not a 

 man to undervalue or depreciate scientific theory, but his talent lay rather 

 in the region of the visible and tangible. The living, breathing world 

 was his domain. He had the quick eye, the retentive memory, and, 

 above all, the responsive, sympathetic heart. 



In the year 1901 we find him reading a paper before the Society 

 on "The Value of Nature Study in Kducation.'' This was a subject after 

 his own heart. He could nit understand education apart from nature- 

 study. 



His executive abilities were quickly recognized, and for mmy years 

 he filled most efficiently the office of Honor.iry Treasurer. In the year 

 1906, he succeeded Dr. S. E. Dawson, then elected vice-president, in the 

 more difficult and laborious office of Honorary Secretary. Here his 

 talents of industry, tact and management found abutidant exercise. The 

 office had previously been held but by two individuals. Sir John Bourinot 

 for the first twenty years of the Society's existence (1882-1902), and Dr. 



