434 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



uncomplaining, free from despondency or anxiety about himself and full 

 of the happy optimism which had always been one of his charming 

 characteristics. 



Few men ever made so many loving friends in all walks of life ; every 

 one who came to know him could not fail to become warmly attached to 

 him. There are many sad hearts grieving at his loss all over the 

 Dominion of Canada, and many, too, in widely-scattered places in the 

 United States. Old and young, rich or poor, learned or ignorant, children 

 and their elders, it made no difference — he had a kindly word for each 

 one, and most can treasure in their memories a kindly deed as well. 

 When he addressed a meeting he captivated his audience at once, and 

 when he joined an excursion of nature students all were eager to be with 

 him and learn from him some of the secrets of the woods and fields that 

 he knew so well. We shall not see his like again, but we may all feel 

 that it was good for us to have known him — liis memory will long live in 

 our hearts — his noble words and generous deeds will be happy recollec- 

 tions for many a year to come. 



Dr. James Fletcher was born at Ashe, in the County of Kent, England, 

 on March 28th, 1852. He was educated at King's School, Rochester, 

 and came to Canada in 1874 to till the position of a clerk in the Bank of 

 British North America. Finding the work uncongenial, after two years he 

 gave it up and became an assistant in the Library of Parliament at Ottawa. 

 All his spare time he devoted to Botany and Entomology, and became, as 

 years went on, a recognized authority in each of these branches of natural 

 science. This led to his appointment as honorary Dominion Entomol- 

 ogist and Botanist, and a year or two later to his taking up the work of 

 these departments at the newly-established Experimental Farm. This was 

 in 1887, and for twenty-one years he has been a highly-valued assistant 

 to Dr. Saunders, the Director, and long since became known throughout 

 North America as one of the ablest scientific men of the day in his special 

 departments. 



In 1878 he became a member of the Council of the Entomological 

 Society of Ontario, and every year since he has been elected to hold some 

 office in it, being four times Vice-President, and President for three years, 

 from 1886 to 1888, and again from 1906 to the time of his death, when 

 he had just been re-elected for another year. His first contribution to the 

 Society's ])ublications was an article on Canadian Buprestidae, which was 

 published in the Annual Report for 1878, and his first paper in this 



