XCVIII ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
the club. And, while all the local floras should receive attention for local 
purposes, a special effort should be made to secure accurate dates for all 
the plants, ete. (so far as they may be found in the locality) which are 
contained in the list compiled by the committee of the Royal Society for 
standards of comparison throughout the whole range of the Dominion. 
2. Local Floras. 
The formation of a standard list of the flora of each locality, so that 
a report of the number of species known to be contained in it may be 
given each year, briefly under, say, the following provisional heads; 
Dicotyledons.....-..-.--.-. , Monocotyledons (non-glumaceous)..............+. À 
Glumales (grasses and sedges).......-., , Pteridophyta (ferns, horsetails and 
club-mosses)...........…. , Bryophyta (mosses and liverworts)............. , Other 
Cryptogams......... ; Total Species......... The additions to the flora of 
any locality canine the year may then be briefly reported thus: D......., 
Mac AÉRUEC ocs Messe Bs soon OCR ; UNAS Ds -taeraee 
3. Aid in Determining Plants. 
The herbarium in the museum of the geological department at 
Ottawa—the nucleus of which is the private collection of Professor John 
Mac reased to many times its original size during the 
past ten years. Professor Macoun or his assistants have collected in all 
the provinces, and many additions have been received from botanists 
working in various parts of the Dominion, so that the her barium now 
contains, with few exceptions, specimens of all plants known to occur in 
Canada. The aim has been to procure for every species at least one 
sheet of specimens from each province in which it is found. In addition 
to this, all forms that differ in the slightest from the type have been 
preserved, so that, of species of wide distribution, there are in some cases 
as many as 25 or 30 sheets of specimens. The value of this is shown 
when the extreme eastern and western forms of common species are 
compared. Those of the east often appear to present good varietal 
differences from those of the west ; but when the specimens from various 
other parts of the Dominion are compared with them it is frequently 
found that they represent intermediate forms running into one another, 
—that though the extreme forms when considered alone might be taken 
to be separate varieties, the intermediate forms show that this is not the 
case. The greatest value of such an herbarium lies in its offering a 
ready means for the determination of doubtful species collected by local 
botanists. What may appear to them a new variety of a plant with 
which they are familiar, may prove to be only a form that is common 
elsewhere. It is important therefore that, when possible, specimens of 
all divergent forms should be sent to the “national” herbarium. 
In order to encourage the formation of private and other herbaria, 

