8 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vi. 



done good servicej but their labours merely sliow how much re- 

 mains to be done. In the latter, Mr. Watt has been our prin- 

 cipal worker; but here also, especially in the Algae and Fungi, 

 there is scope for other observers. Some one might do a most 

 important service by directing his attention to the Parasitic 

 Fungi of this country. 



Geology, which presents the largest and most attractive field 

 open to students of nature in Canada, has a most important public 

 provision made for its culture in the Geological Survey. Still 

 the function of this Society and of private workers is not unim- 

 portant. Several of the officers of the Survey have made the 

 journal and the meetings of this Society the vehicles of their 

 more purely scientific researches. I need only mention the valu- 

 able papers of Dr. T. Sterry Hunt on Chemical Geology, and 

 those of Mr. Billings on Palaeontology, as illustrative of this. 

 To Mr. Hartley, Mr. Robb, Mr. Vennor, Professor Bell, and 

 Mr. Broome, we have also been indebted in this way. Mr. McFar- 

 lane has enriched our journal with many valuable contributions, 

 especially on the nature of rocks, and many of my own researches, 

 especially in Post-pliocene Geology and Fossil Botany, have been 

 published through the medium of the Society. The field for 

 work is still, however, very wide ; more especially is there large 

 scope for industrious collectors of fossils, if they would devote 

 themselves to the thorough exploration of such formations as may 

 be within their reach. 



PUBLIC PATRONAGE NEEDED. 



In conclusion, I must refer to what I regard as at present the 

 most discouraging feature of our position. In the able address 

 delivered last year by Br. DeSola, reference was made to the 

 slender aid and countenance which this Society receives from the 

 public, and the same subject is illustrated by the statistics of tlie 

 Society in the reports of the Council for last year, and also for 

 the present year. A Society like this, ofi'ering to the public a 

 w-ell filled and well arranged museum, the advantage of attending 

 its scientific meetings and public lectures, and of receiving its 

 journal at a price little more than nominal, should need no ad- 

 vertisement ; and this more especially when its working members 

 are kbouring so successfully in enlarging the boundaries of know- 

 ledge and promoting its .practical applications. Those of our 

 citizens who are not themselves naturalists, should on these 



