Natural History Society oj Montreal, 229 



oasis for a eomplete illustration of North American Botany. It 



is hoped that before long, by the exertions of the Committee to 

 whose care the Herbarium has been entrusted, it will be rendered 

 easy of reference to the members of the Society, and that by a 

 system of exchanges its lacunae will be filled up." 



" It is also worthy of notice that the Society has a considerable 

 collection of Marine Alga3, carefully catalogued and determined, 

 which miorht be useful to the Students of this department of 

 Botany. The Society will be happy to receive additions to these 

 collections from scientific friends." 



The usual course of Somerville lectures were delivered during 

 the last winter ; as will be more fully noticed in the report of the 

 Council, which will be read to you by-and-bye. I was only able 

 to be present at two out of the six, having been absent from town 

 when the rest were delivered, or else prevented by some unavoid- 

 able engagement elsewhere. But if the others were as interesting 

 as those I heard, which I have every reason to believe they were, 

 they will well have kept up the good name which the Society has 

 earned in former years. 



The first lecture, at which I was present, was that delivered by 

 Rev. A. F. Kemp, " On minute forms of life, especially addressed 

 to the young." And it was matter of much regret to me and 

 many others, that he so rigidly confined himself as to time, that 

 he could not make use of half the very beautiful diagrams, which 

 he had so carefully prepared to illustrate his subject. The other 

 lecture was by the Rev. E. Wood, " A popular account of the 

 Durham Coal-fields, with a brief narrative of a visit underground.'^ 

 This was, I should think, one of the most popular of the whole 

 course ; both from the graphic description given of those subter- 

 raneous regions — which, however, I own seem to me much pleas- 

 anter to hear of than to explore — and also from the circumstance 

 that just at the time of its delivery we had received from England 

 the heart-rending intelligence of the terrible catastrophe at the 

 Hartley Colliery ; the nature of which the lecturer most fully 

 explained w^ith appropriate diagrams. I think then that in various 

 ways the Society is endeavouring faithfully to accomplish the ob- 

 jects for which it was incorporated, and to aid in which it receives 

 an annual grant from the Legislature. And some indication that 

 it is at length beginning to be better appreciated by the citizens 

 of Montreal, may be gathered from the fact that 87 new mem- 

 bers have joined us during the last year, more than one-third as 



