[PEKHALLOW] A REVIEW OF CANADIAN BOTANY 11 



involved in difficult phraseology as to make his meaning obscure to -most 

 students, his work was executed with the greatest care and fidelity, and 

 it must iicoessarily stand as the basis of all future work in this direction. 



Yet another new field of study was entered upon during this period 

 by Sullivant who accomplished for Canadian botany in those earlier days 

 what was later done by Lesquereux and James, and within recent years 

 is being done by Kindberg. His accurate and painstaking work in 

 Bryology, stands as a model of what such work should be, and must 

 always secure to him au eminent place among Canadian botanists, as it 

 has among those of the United States. The very valuable collections 

 upon which these studies were based, now form an essential part of the 

 ilerbariutn of Harvard Universit3^ 



As already pointed out, the various botanical collections derived from 

 the Ai'ctic expeditions of Ross, Parry, P'ranklin and others, were chiefly 

 described by Sir William Hooker. The material which thus gradually 

 accumulated during a period of some twenty-five years, was at length to 

 form the basis of the most important contribution to Canadian botany 

 which had yet appeared. In 1840 Sir AYm. Hooker issued his well known 

 Flora Boreali or the botany of the northern parts of Bi'itish America. As 

 we are informed by the little page, dedication and preface, this very note- 

 worthy production was based upon the collections made during the 

 expeditions of Sir John Franklin, by Dr. Eichardson and Mr. Drummond 

 under " circumstances of singular difficulty, hardship and danger. Un- 

 avoidable circumstances delayed the publication much beyond the intended 

 time, an event, however, which was not without its advantages, since the 

 accumulation of new material, particular!}' from the collections of Mr. 

 Douglas, Mr. Tolmie and Dr. Gardner, permitted the description of 

 many addiiional species, although the dimensions which the work thus 

 attained liually necessitated leaving out of consideration the whole of the 

 Cryptogams except the ferns and theii- allies, and in the exclusion of 

 descriptions of jjlants already well known.'' 



The title given to this work is in some scmse misleading, since as 

 explained by Sir Wm. Hooker himself, it was intended to include the work 

 of all British naturalists "from the days of Newenham ' and Menzies, 

 to those of Beechy and the officers attached to the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany's Factories" ; it therefore presents "the vegetation of all that 

 portion of North America proper, which, commencing with the extreme 

 Arctic islands, stretches south to the boundary, so ftir as it has been ascer- 

 tained, of the United States and California.^ 



In his Flora Boreali, Sir William Hooker states that " the more densely 

 inhabited parts of Canada have produced raaoy native botanists," * and 



1 Rev. Can. Bot., Traus. R. Soc. Can., V. iv. 45. 



2 Flor. Bor. Amer. I. Pref. iv.; Hook., Bot. Misc. I. 92. 



3 Flor. Bor. Amer. I. Pref. iv. 



