26 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



question is now seriously engaging the attention of Government, and 

 large sums of money are expended in the prosecution of scientific re- 

 search bearing upon the preservation of forest lands and the economic 

 application of timber. 



Enormous sums of money are annually involved in the destruction 

 of crops by the operation of disease and parasitic growths, and in the 

 investigation of their causes and prevention, the United States Grovern- 

 ment wisely expends much effort and money. At the present time 

 pathology forms a leading feature in the work of the various experiment 

 stations throughout the United States. Although the Experimental 

 Farm at Ottawa is doing important work in this direction, questions of 

 this kind have, as yet, taken no serious hold with us. 



It is therefore clear that so long as we are content with present con- 

 ditions, we must be satisfied to occupy a secondary position, and continue 

 to be dependent upon others for much that should be reckoned among 

 our common resources. 



While, therefore, the immediate future of Canadian botanical 

 science does not seem to offer the brilliant prospect which we all desire, 

 we may hope for much better things than the past has revealed. It is 

 to our universities that we turn in the hope that they may, at an early 

 date, appreciate the need of supplying laboratories for research with all 

 the necessary resources to be found in ample herbaria, gardens and 

 libraries, and thus retain within our own borders those students who are 

 now compelled to seek the advantages they desire in foreign institutions. 



