113 



taken of their time of planting. Special efforts will be made to ha*'e the 

 collection illustrating the Canadian flora as complete as possible, and I 

 now appeal to the members of the Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club to help 

 me in securing roots of as many as possible of our native plants for cultiva- 

 tion. Every working botanist knows the difficulty of deciding specific 

 limits from dried herbarium specimens. I shall, therefore, make a speci- 

 alty cf trying to clear up some of the botanical problems, which now 

 bother botanists, by growing several specimens from seed, where possible 

 from various localities. I have already several species under cultiva- 

 tion, the seeds of which were collected by Professor Macoun, myself or 

 some of my correspondents, and I shall be glad to experiment with any 

 seeds sent to me for that purpose. I would particularly request now 

 the seeds of Asters and Solid igoes, as I am convinced there is yet much 

 to be done, in working up the Canadian representatives of these two 

 genera, which can only be satisfactorily accomplished by growing them 

 from the seed. 



Besides the solution of such scientific problems as the above, 

 economic plants from other parts of the world will be tested as to their 

 suitability for profitable cultivation in Canada. Forestry now becoming 

 so important in Canada, will also receive attention. Already enormous 

 numbers ot young trees have been grown from the seed and distributed 

 to settlers on the treeless praries of Manitoba and the North-West 

 Territories. Before long it will become necessary in Canada to grow 

 trees for timber, in the same way as is now systematically done in Ger- 

 many. This however will not be done for many years to come and by 

 that time, I hope, valuable data will be available from the growth of 

 the specimens on the Experimental Farm to show what kinds of trees 

 can be profitably grown. 



Many other benefits, I trust, will come from this Botanic Garden 

 now begun, by which general botanical knowledge, economic and scien- 

 tific, will be advanced, and I look forward to the time when the Botanic 

 Garden of Ottawa, shall be one of the chief attractions of this part of 

 the Dominion. 





.4 



