B-4 ROYAL SOCIETY OK CANADA 



Transactions of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science, which was cvit 

 short 1)}' his premature decease. His heibarium is said on very high 

 authority to be the finest and most extensive private herbarium in 

 Canada. It has become the property of the University of Mount Alhson 

 in Xew Brunswick, while his botanical library' was preser\ted by his two 

 suiwiving children, Sara ^f. and Jessie W., the latter Mrs. W. F. MacCo}', 

 to the University of Dalhousie. 



His work and influence can not be measured by his publications 

 alone, numerous as they are. for the inces>ant occupation of his time in 

 his various public capacities did not permil him to throw into Hiuil form 

 the matter accumulating for some of his ])rojected pubhcations. And 

 then his greatest work was the influence of his personality and teaching 

 over his students and the pulilic. The magnitude of this influence in the 

 domain of botany is indicated by the imj^etus given to this subject in 

 Canada, beginning in 185S and marked at Kingston by thi' organization 

 of the Botanical Society of Canada, and later at Ottawa, by its successor 

 the Botanical Club of Canada, and by the number of Canadian botanists 

 Avhose scientific bias was determined directly or indirectly b}' his enthu- 

 siasm ; in chemistry by the numerous students who became useful in the 

 industrial and professional fields, and by some who already have become 

 eminent as scholars and investigators ; in agriculture and horticulture 

 b}' his tiiirtv years' contact with the local leaders of these industries, his 

 public lectures, published papers and reports, exhibitions, local and 

 provincial, and his own example in his extensive model stock farm, which 

 he also found time to direct, by the existence of the Provincial School of 

 Agriculture at Truro, and the School of Horticulture at Wolfville, and 

 the stress laid on the objective study of nature in the ])ublic school 

 system as a stimulus to the industrial sentiment of the ])upils as well as 

 the foundation of a true scientific training for all. While all these 

 results cannot be traced to any one personality, to none do so many of 

 the'lines of influence converge for their source as to the subject of this 

 sketch. 



While he was thus unceasingly emi)loycd he exercised the most 

 remarkable equableness of temper which was 'never disturbed b}^ any 

 sign of impatience, or neglect of the most courteous attention to the 

 student or inquirer. In the words of an eminent student, later a 

 colleague : ''As a man he had in large measure the characteristics which 

 make it possible by pei-sonal contact to gain the confidence of, and to 

 influence large bodies of men. He was kindly, symi)athetic, courteous, 

 patient, careful ot the feelings of others, and always willing to serve 

 others from the rich stores of his wider knowledge. It was these 

 beauties of chai-acter, far more deei)ly marked in him than in most men. 

 which gained for him the warm affection of tho.se who studied under 

 him, and the well-grounded esteem of the farmers of Nova Scolia who 

 for .so long a pcrlo I have been largely guided by his advice." 



