XXVIII ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 



In the Biological Division of the i'ourth Section we have Dr. C. Hart Merriam's paper on the 

 Habits of Bats, in which he answers in the affirmative, foi- the Hoary Bat, the question which he puts : 

 Do any Canadian Bats migrate? the evidence consisting of the fact of the absence of the species from 

 its breeding range in the late fall and winter, coupled with positive records of its occurrence during 

 that portion of the year in many places far to the south. Two other species are jîrobably migratory. 



Dr. T. Wesley Mills, in his suggestive paper on Squirrels, introduces us to a phase of Biology, 

 now existing only in ils earliest stage, and which may be I'egarded as the stai-ting point of a new 

 line of enquiry, for, as he trul\- says, there must be a possible science of comparative psj'chology, as 

 there is of comparative anatomy and physiology. The study of animal intelligence is possible, 

 interesting, and important, whether we regard man as derived from some lower form and his intel- 

 lectual as well as his physical being the result of evolution ; or whether we consider that man stands 

 wholly ajyart in origin either as to body or mind. In the latte^ case, the study of the lower forms 

 of mind atfoids a useful contrast with its highest development as seen in maji; in the former we aim 

 at the construction of a ladder by which we may climb from the simplest manifestations of con- 

 sciousness to the highest performances of the most gigantic human intellect. The present paper 

 relates specially to feigning, and to the modification of intelligence by hibernation, and by contact 

 with mankind. 



Prof. Penhallow gives a Review of Canadian Botany, from the first settlement of New France 

 to the end of the eighteenth century. This will prove of service to working botanists, and of 

 interest, fi'oni varying points of view, to many others. Young as our country is usually looked u]ion, 

 it is nevertheless old enough to have been connected in an esjJecial manner with the beginnings of 

 modern botany in Europe, and with the rathei' later developments of horticulture and arboriculture 

 in France and Britain. In the early part of the eighteenth century, Dicrville took Acadian plants 

 to Tournefort, and Peter Kalm of Abo in Sweden, encouraged by Linnreus, undertook his journey to 

 America, i-eaching Quebec bj' way of Philadelphia, Albany and Lake Champlain, and, after an absence 

 of nearly four years, returned to Abo to cultivate his American discoveries. Kalm may well be 

 accounted the father of Canadian botany; his name is commemorated in the three northern Kalmias, 

 only two of which are known to grow within our Canadian borders, although all are credited to 

 ns in recent floras. Kalm was followed by André Michau.v, in 1785-8G, and he reached Quebec and 

 Montreal in 1792. Lastly, towards the close of the century, we have the Scotch botanist, Menzies, 

 naturalist of Vancouver's Expetlition, whose collections were made on the north-west coast of America 

 and a few in the environs of Halifax harbour. They are kept in their original cases, very neatly 

 arranged, on small sheets of paper, in portable pigeon-holed cabinets in the Herbarium Hall at the 

 Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh. 



Mr. George U. Hay, of St. John, N.B., and Mr. A. H. MacKay, of Pictou, N.S., give a List of the 

 Marine Alga- of the Maritime Provinces, which will pi-ove useful to students of these plants, whose 

 life-histories offer an illimitable field for study. 



Prof. Fowler présents, in tabulated form, a statement of the facts relating to distribution of 

 those members of the so-called Arctic Flora, that is plants growing within the Arctic Circle, that are 

 also inhabitants of New Brunswick. The lai-ge number of such species suggests enquiry as to the 

 causes or conditions that have rendered New Brunswick a suitable asylum for them on their assumed 

 northward retreat during the period of amelioration of climate succeeding the glacial epoch. Tho 

 explanation is found so far, in the influences of the Gulf stieam, the Arctic current and its attendant 

 fogs, the surface contour of New Brunswiclc. Its rugged north and north-western portion, is inter- 

 sected by rivers, with deep glens, shadj' ravines, cold bogs, springs and lingering snows — all tending to 

 furnish conditions such as the little northern plants require. Mr. Payne's Observations on the seasonal 

 development of plants at Cape Prince of Wales, Hudson Sti-ait, throughout the growing season 

 of 1886, form a worthj' supplement to Prof. Fowler's suggestive paper, and have besides an interest 

 entirely their own, as the first series of systematic observations of the kind made with any great 



