34 B. C. ENTOMOLOGICAL PROCEEDIXGS, 191L 



CLniATIC INFLUENCES AT WORK IN THE PROVINCE 

 AFFECTING PLANT AND INSECT LIFE. 



I may preface my remarks tonight by saying that I like to pick out 

 my own text, and don't profess to be a literary man nor yet an universal 

 genius who, with the pen of a ready writer, can atack any subject under 

 the sun, or the earth, or the waters under the earth. 



It is a little hard to know just exactly how to treat the subject 

 which has been laid down for me in the programme. There are sev- 

 eral methods of getting at it. We might, for instance, go away back 

 into the womb of time and look at the gradual distribution of plants 

 and insects in their struggle for existence. We might compare some of the 

 general and even the species of this country with those of the old country. 

 When I say this country, I mean this part of British Columbia. In 

 some cases we find they are identical, as witness our Droceras and 

 Lentibularias, both insectivorous plants. Where there is a difference it 

 is generally that the individuals here are larger. Take, for instance, 

 the Cowparsnip of the old country, Heracleu?ii spfiondi'lium, a plant 

 seldom growing more than three feet high, and compare it with our 

 H, lanatum, which I have seen over eight feet in height and with leaves 

 inclusive of the petioles as much as 3^ to 4 feet. Again, take the little 

 plant belonging to the old country, Adoxa moschatalina, a little thing 

 seldom more than an inch high, and compare it with its gigantic cousin 

 the Devils Club, Fasia horrida, which grows in semi-tropical profusion 

 on our mountain slopes, where the soil is rich and the copious showers 

 of warm rain are driven in from the Pacific. Such instances as these 

 indicate the primaeval condition of our vegetative growth where do- 

 mestication and its relative diminishing effect on plant growth have not 

 made themselves so noticeable. Let me for one instance compare our 

 mammals here with those of the old country. Take the little roedeer 

 and place it side by side with such gigantic herbivores as the Elk and 

 the Moose. These instances I consider as due to climate conditions and 

 to the factor whereby the food materials for plants still remain virginal 

 resulting in the raising of large quantities of food for the indigeous 

 animals which up to this stage of the world's history have not been 

 affected to any marked degree by the hand of man. 



I have said that where differences exist in this country the types 

 here are larger ; I ought to say that this does not apply so much to in- 

 sects. I have not found that there is very much difference in the size 

 of the individual, but when it comes to numbers the preponderance is 

 vastly on the side of British Columbia. I do not necessarily mean to 

 imply that excessive numbers of certain insects during certain years is 

 a factor peculiar to British Columbia, because I know other parts of 



