264 The Ottawa Naturalist. [February 



hood, which enabled him to publish those excellent Decades, or 

 Descriptions of Canadian Organic Remains, and give to the 

 world much information respecting the ancient life ot those early 

 seas which once covered this portion of the North American 

 continent. 



Outside of this but little systematic work had been published 

 or recorded from this locality until the Club made its appearance, 

 and sought to develop and search out the geological, botanical, 

 entomologfical and other resources at our verv doors. In the 

 department of Entomology, and through the writings ot Dr. 

 Fletcher, of Mr. Harrington and of Mr. T. J. McLaughlin, the 

 Transactions of The Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club, in the first 

 six parts, and in The Ottawa Naturalist, whiih followed, con- 

 tain probably more information regarding the inssct life of our 

 district than can be found recorded for any other city in Canada. 

 In the department of Botany the good work of Dr. Fletcher, in his 

 early edition of the Flora Ottawaensis, which served to guide 

 many of us in the pleasant paths of flowering plants, with his 

 enthusiastic co-worker, Mr. R. B. Whyte, in the opening year of 

 our Club, gave an impetus to the study of plants which was only 

 enhanced by the advent of Prof. John Macoun, M.A., F.L.S., and 

 his family to our city. In Ottawa, the active, genial and militant 

 professor was made welcome, and he has given the Club the con- 

 stant benefit of his wide experience, urged everyone to more ob- 

 jective work and greater effort in carrying out the objects of our 

 Club. " What are you doing for the Club, or for natural history?" 

 was the constant question put. It is a notable fact that the 

 botanical branch of our Club has been ever the most popular. The 

 second edition of the Flora Ottawaensis, in which Dr. Fletcher 

 gives the precise locality in which each species can be found, be- 

 sides its name, common and scientific, proved a further boon to 

 botanical students. A careful use of this work and dilligent search 

 after the rarer specimens of plants about Ottawa, invariably led 

 those devoting their attention to this fascinating branch to dis- 

 cover their prize and complete their herbaria. 



Whether on the mountain top or in the valley, or again by 

 the riverside or along the brooks or lakes of our district, in the 

 swamps and rocky places, in the diversified regions such as we 





