120 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



Coleoptera and Hemiptera. As an instance, it may be mentioned that on the flowers of 

 Ceanothus Americana there were seen forty-eight species of Hymenoptera, forty five of 

 Dipteia, two of Lepidoptera, thirteen of Coleoptera, and four of Hemiptera ; and consid- 

 ations are given as in the case of all other blossoms treated of, on the arrangement of the 

 flowers, their form, color and other peculiarities of structure, some of them exceedingly 

 minute, in which close and patient observation often succeeds in discovering most 

 wonderful purpose and design for insuring cross-fertilization. 



These investigations are of great interest and we commend them to the attention of 

 entomologists and botanists as a fertile field of useful special study. Our idea of men- 

 tioning these excellent articles of Mr. Robertson's is to draw to this subject the attention 

 it deserves from entomologists, who from their place of publication might not be aware of 

 their existence. 



J. A. GuiGXARD and J. Fletcheu. 



A PEN SKETCH OF PROF. WILLIAM SAUNDERS, F.R.S.C, F.LS., ETC.* 



By F. \V. GoDiNG, M.D., Ph.D., Rutland, Illinois. 



A sketch of the life of V/m. Saunders is peculiarly instructive to voung men, because 

 of the fact that he has accomplished so much with so few opportunities in the way of a 

 liberal education, having left school at the age of fourteen ; but by painstaking study and 

 observation he has risen to the topmost pinacle of fame as an entomologist, horticulturist 

 and experimental agriculturist. He was born in Crediton, Devonshire, England June 

 16, 183G. At the age of twelve with his parents he removed to Canada, and two years 

 later was apprenticed to a chemist. After learning the art he engaged in business, con- 

 tinuing it in London, Ont., until his recent promotion in 1836 to the Directorship of the 

 Dominion Experimental Farms. A sa chemist and pharmacist he is well known through- 

 out the United States and Canada, his published papers being widely copied and trans- 

 lated into several foreign languages. He was President of the American Pharmaceutical 

 Association in 1877-8, while in 1874 he was elected an honorary member of the Pharma- 

 ceutical Council of Great Britain. The Canadian Government recognizing his special 

 qualifications appointed him Public Analyst, in which capacity he did good service in 

 detecting and exposing adulterations, especially in articles of food. He was for a num- 

 ber of years, preceeding his recent promotion. Professor of Materia Medica in the Medical 

 Department of Western L^niversity in London, Ont., a position he w^as peculiarly quali- 

 fied to fill. 



Coupled with all these attainments he has others in which we are far more deeply 

 interested. As an entomologist and horticulturist he is known to every student of either 

 branch, and to mention all the things accomplished by him in these departments would 

 require far more space than is allotted to this paper. He began the study of botany 

 some thirty-five years ago, publishing the first list of plants found in W'estern Ontario, 

 embracing 545 species, in 1863. Some time prior to this he captured a fine specimen of 

 Fapilio turnus (in 1859 or 60) and found it possessed of so many beauties that he was 

 led to look for others. From this chance occurrence he was directed to the study of 

 insects in general, and as an entomologist is considered second to none in point of emin- 

 ence. At the time of the organization of this society, in 1863, he took an active part, 

 and much of its present flourishing condition is due to his careful management as Presi- 

 dent, a position he occupied during the greater part of its existence. While editor of the 

 Canadian Entomologist, the only entomological magazine ever published in Ameripa that 

 has beeu»able to live to attain its majority, he was also one of its pnncipal contributors, 

 his articles publisl.ed therein and in your society reports reaching miny hundreds. The 



*This account of the life of Prof. Sannder?, whose portrait is prefixed to this Report, was written two 

 or three years ago, and will be read with interest as conveying the impressions of a foreigner, who cannot 

 be charged with the partiality of intimate friendship. — Ed. 



