48 PENH ALLOW ON 



are of a most general character, and almost wholly relate to those forms which would 

 naturally attract his attention, because of their direct relation to subsistance, or their 

 application to house and ship building. Nevertheless, it would appear that collections of 

 plants must have been made about this time, either by members of the expedition or by 

 those who shortly followed it, since Coruut's " Canadensium Plantarum Historia," the 

 first work on Canadian botany, was published in 1635. 



La Salle, in his voyage down the Mississippi in the years 16*79 to 1682, possessed 

 vinrivalled opportunities for observation on the flora of that vast region, but his interest 

 was too fully concentrated upon the primary object of his expedition, and the only notes 

 of information which he has left, are such as were gathered and preserved by his attend- 

 ants. Similarly, La Houtan's journey, in 1Y03, ' has left us nothing of value in this 

 direction. 



In the year 1*706, Diéreville " visited the coast of America, an account of which he has 

 left in his "Voyage du Port-Royal de I'Acadie," published at Amsterdam in 1*708. He 

 carried a number of plants back to France, and submitted them to Tournefort, one of the 

 three great botanists of that day. Among other plants, was a specimen of the bush honey- 

 suckle, a plant entirely new to Tournefort, who dedicated it to its discoverer under the 

 generic name of Diervilla. 



Following Diéreville by nearly half a century was Mark Catesby, a naturalist explorer, 

 who left an important contribution to our knowledge of the North American flora in his 

 " Hortus Britauuico-Americanus, or the Trees and Shrubs of North America," published at 

 Loudon, in 1*763. Yet this work can not be regarded as properly bearing upon the 

 Canadian flora, since the eighty-five species which it describes, are dealt with as belonging 

 to the Southern States. A few of the species, viz., oak, maple, dogwood, etc., are also 

 Canadian, but that they were so was not within his knowledge. 



Mackenzie, ^ in 1*789, penetrated the heart of British North America to the mouth of 

 the river bearing his name. He also reached the Pacific Coast in the vicinity of Vancouver. 

 Yet beyond a few casual observations upon the common trees met with, nothing was 

 recorded. There were no attempts at scientific observations upon the flora of the country, 

 which might have been expected to be one of the leading features of such an expedition. 

 But this is accounted for, to a large extent, by the fact that there was no professional 

 naturalist attached. Mackenzie himself, who appears to have had some appreciation of 

 the desirability of such work, could not attend to its details, for, as he says in excuse, " I 

 do not possess the science of the naturalist, and eA'en if the qualifications of that character 

 had been attained by me, its curious spirit could not have been gratified. I could not 

 stop to dig into the earth, over whose surface I was compelled to pass with rapid steps ; 

 nor could I turn aside to collect the plants which Nature might haA^e scattered in my way, 

 when my thoughts were anxiously employed in making provision for the day that was 

 passing over me." Moreover, as he recorded later, the numerous perils of the voyage and 

 a turbulent crew of men, fully engaged his attention, had it been otherwise possible to 



' Voyage de la Baron de La Hontan dans l'Amérique Sejjtentrionale, 1703. 



'^ The available information respecting this early explorer is most fragmentary :nul unsatisfactory. A care- 

 ful search through several large libraries, has failed to discover anything concerning him beyond the very scanty 

 information usually found in biographical dictionaries, and which is stated in the accompanying list. 



" Mackenzie's Voyages, etc., 1801. 



