14 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



whose name stands forth promineniiy in this later period is Sir J. D. 

 Hooker, the worthy successor of Sir William Hooker. To him we are 

 indebted for an extension of our knowledge of Arctic vegetation, his 

 studies being based upon material collected during the expeditions of 

 Richardson, Belcher and McClure, of McClintock and Nares, which latter, 

 with the exception of the Greely expedition, was the last to add anything 

 to our previous knowledge of the vegetation of these high latitudes. 



Until 1850 no attempt had been made to enter upon a critical study 

 of our marine vegetation. In 1852, however, under the auspices of the 

 Smithsonian Institute at Washington, Harvey commenced to issue a 

 series of studies of the Marine Algœ of North America, a work which 

 was not completed until 1858. Although dealing largely with more 

 southern forms, this work includes a number of species common to the 

 Atlantic Coast of Canada, and it is therefore entitled to a place here. A 

 more direct contribution to the marine flora of our coasts was made by 

 the same author in 1862, being an account of Algse collected by David 

 Lyall at Vancouver's Island in 1859-61. Minor contributions to Canadian 

 botany were made by Lj^all in 1863, W. L. Lindsay in 1865. and by M. J. 

 Berkely in 1875. 



Among the American botanists who gained prominence in this 

 period we tirst encounter the name of Boot, who, as an authority on the 

 Carices, described th'ose plants collected during the expedition of Sir John 

 Eichardson. Later, the well-known names of Eaton (D. C.) and P'arlow 

 appeared, and within very recent date we tind the names of Ellis and 

 Everhart as authorities upon a very extensive and difficult group of fungi. 

 Canadian botany will always rest under the greatest obligations to Prof. 

 C. S. Sargent for the highly important work he has accomplished in 

 advancing our knowledge of that great forest- wealth which is so rapidly 

 disappearing. In his contributions to the 10th Census of the United 

 States on the Forestry of North America, he gave at once the most con- 

 cise and authoritative work on the distribution of forest trees on this con- 

 tinent ever issued, and as a contribution to scientitic and economic botany 

 it must ever hold an important place. The superb Sylva, a voluminous 

 work of twelve large volumes, now in course of publication, stands with- 

 out a peer. It is a worthy compendium of the laborious and accurate 

 work of botanists from the days of Michaux, Pui-sh and Nuttall to the 

 present time. While it is perhaps a source of mortification to feel that 

 the conditions of scientific progress here are such as to render works of 

 this character practically impossible in Canada, it is also a source of great 

 gratification to feel that the rich endowment of science which is so pro- 

 minent a feature in the advancement of our neighbours to the south of 

 the line, as also the cultivation of that generous spirit of brotherhood in 

 science, a spirit which recognises no artificial limitations, permits us to 

 share its advantages as if it were our own. 



