22 The Ottawa Naturalist. [April 



REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN 

 During the year numerous exchanges and other publications 

 have been received and placed in proper position. Thirty two 

 complete sets of back numbers of "THE NATURALIST" from the 

 time of its inception, 1879, to the present time have been arranged 

 and stored in a cupboard easy of access. This exhausts all copies 

 of certain months but leaves a large number of copies of other 

 months. By this arrangement considerable new space will 

 be secured in the Library room. 



For a number of years no apportionment has been made for 

 the binding ot publications. I beg to suggest that it would be 

 wise to revive this custom as regards the most valuable exchanges. 

 It might also be well in view of the limited number of back copies 

 of "The Naturalist" to formulate a more careful plan of distri- 

 bution than in the past. 



All of which is respectfully submitted. 



S. B. Sinclair. 

 Ottawa. Mar. 14th, 1899. Librarian. 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 



Edited by Dr. J as. Fletcher. 



Gentiana serrata. — In the autumn of 1897 several 

 specimens of this interesting plant were found and identified by 

 Miss Mary Nagle, teacher of School Section No. 6, Huntley, to 

 whom belongs the credit of being first to locate the plant in the 

 Ottawa district. 



While travelling from Stittsville toward Ashton on Sept. 

 14th, 1898, the writer discovered a colony of many hundred 

 specimens growing near the roadside in wet sandy soil, a con- 

 genial habitat for this plant. The rich blue and the ciliate 

 fringed margins of the corolla render the " fringed gentian " one 

 of the loveliest of our native plants. 



Verbascum blattaria. — In the summer of 1891 a small 

 colony of Moth Mullein was noted in an old pasture on Lot 33, 

 Ottawa Front about half a mile west of Mechanicsville. Though 



