Miscellaneous. 467 



degenerated into popular institutions, calculated rather for the 

 amusement of the many than for the encouragement and aid of 

 the few who are engaged in the prosecution of original discovery. 

 We shall be guarded against such a result, in a great measure by 

 the special object of our Institution, but it will be needful, also, 

 while we attempt to spread a taste for Botany, and to diffuse cor- 

 rect information as to its objects, its discoveries and its useful appli- 

 cations, that we should seek rather to bring our members and the pub- 

 lic into scientific modes of thought and expression than to allow our 

 Society to yield up its scientific character to suit the popular taste. 

 There is much reason to believe that the want of an organization 

 of this kind, whose duty is to collect and record facts and dis- 

 coveries, has been the means of losing to science materials of 

 great value. There have been casual residents in Canada, at differ- 

 ent times, who have made collections of greater or less extent and 

 who have in some cases, carried out special investigations in Bo- 

 tany without leaving any printed record of their labours. Some of 

 these may still be rescued from oblivion ; but there are also 

 other observations, and discoveries made by present residents in 

 the country which, we may confidently hope, will be made avail- 

 able to the Society's purposes. 



"The objects sought by the establishment ofa Botanical Society 

 in this country are of great importance, both in a scientific and 

 economical point of view. The field is broad and the soil is rich. 

 The extent to which we can cultivate will depend entirely upon 

 the number of the laborers, and the zeal and industry which they 

 display. Let us therefore not be disappointed with our first re- 

 sults. Let us lay a foundation and persevere in the work and 

 workers will gather around us as they have done before in the 

 Botanical Societies of other countries. To organizations of this 

 kind more than to any other means, are we indebted for the ad- 

 vanced state of botanical science, at this day ; and in a country 

 such as this, it is especially needful to have a wide spread organ- 

 ization in order to elicit satisfactory results. In an attempt to 

 organise a Society such as this, we may confidently appeal to 

 many classes of the community. The theologian, and moralist see 

 in the vegetable kingdom a display of the power and wisdom and 

 goodness of our Creator, and beautiful types of spiritual teaching ; 

 the medical man recognises in it, the source of his most potent 

 drugs ; the sanitary reformer knows, that the simpler forms of 

 vegetation are often the cause, and more frequently the index of 



