PROCEEDINGS FOR 1922 XIX 



Dr. A. H. MacKay, who had prepared a sketch of the work of 

 the late Professor John Macoun, M.A., F.L.S., was then called upon 

 by the President and delivered the following address: — 



A CHARTER MEMBER'S WORK (1831-1921): 



PROFESSOR JOHN MACOUN, M.A., F.L.S., 

 CANADIAN NATURALIST AND EXPLORER 



• Forty years of preparation, forty years of feverish exploration 

 across prairies and mountains from ocean to ocean, and nearly ten 

 of quiet enjoyment — but still exploring — in his Western Island retreat 

 by the Pacific, sum up the career of a remarkable unit of human 

 energy which came to Canada from beyond the Atlantic — from 

 Ireland on the west of Europe. 



"His blue eyes sought the West afar 

 For lovers love the Western star." 



He came to a pioneer Canadian farm at nineteen, but was soon 

 drafted into the leadership of the young as a teacher, his preparation 

 culminating in promotion to the professorship of Natural History 

 subjects in Albert College, Belleville, Ontario, at forty. 



In 1872 he was spending his vacation as usual, this time on a 

 botanical excursion across the great lakes to the then new west, when 

 he collided with the Sir Sanford Flemming Expedition in search of a 

 transcontinental railway route. Rev. Geo. M. Grant of Halifax being 

 secretary. His enthusiastic personality, with its untiring energy 

 and scientific competency, was a great desideratum of the expedition 

 so that he was promptly annexed, to the delight and profit of all, as is 

 graphically sketched in Grant's "Ocean to Ocean." 



This was the first of more than a dozen exploratory excursions 

 across the continent. Macoun's chief botanical interest, as would 

 anyone's be when coming into new territory, was the discovery of 

 what was there. He found an interesting fîora of which most species 

 were already described by the earlier botanists. But the general 

 complexion of these floras varied with the geological substratum and 

 the physical conditions and exposures of the localities. Among these 

 were many new forms not previously described. He was forced to 

 know exactly the natural exterior morphology of plants and their 

 ecological relations. 



He therefore had not time to expend on the minute structures 

 necessary for the study of plant physiology and the problems of 

 genetics. His interests were absorbed in the morphologj^ taxonomy 



