XXV1 PROCEEDINGS. 
our knowledge of the geographical distribution of plants. The Insti- 
tute was the more indebted to Prof. Lawson for publishing these papers 
in its Transactions, because, long before coming among us, he had 
gained the ear of the scientific world, and the Transactions of several 
of the Societies of the mother-country, which formed much better 
means of publication than ours, were open to him. I know that pre- 
viously to the last few years, he felt very keenly the serious drawbacks 
connected with publishing in the Transactions of the Institute. At that 
time the Council rigorously demanded that no paper should be published 
in our Transactions which had previously appeared elsewhere, while, at 
the same time, little effort was made to distribute our Transactions among 
Scientific Societies throughout the world. Of course, also, none of the 
larger scientific societies or magazines would publish a paper which had 
previously appeared here. Papers published in our Transactions were 
thus, to a certain extent, buried, and authors could bring them to the 
notice of scientific men elsewhere only by distributing separate 
copies. During the last few years the policy of the Council 
has been changed. Our Transactions are now sent to all important 
Scientific Societies throughout the world, and, in addition, to a very 
large number of Universities, Public Libraries and Museums. A 
paper which is published in our Transactions, therefore, has some 
chance of being seen. But, besides that, in several cases recently, the 
Council has wisely permitted the publication of papers which had been 
communicated to it, previously to their appearance in our Transactions, 
on the simple condition of their being credited to the Institute. Toa 
man like Dr. Lawson, who had the best avenues of publication open to 
him, these modifications of our policy were a great relief; for they 
permitted him to communicate researches to the Institute and yet to 
feel confident that he was not thereby hiding them away. Conse- 
quently, during the last few years, he had been able to bring a larger 
number of papers before the Institute than formerly, and he had pro- 
jected a series of valuable papers on the Flora of Nova Scotia, which 
were to have been communicated to us. The first of this series was 
read on February 9th, 1891, and appears in our Transactions at p. 84 
of the eighth volume. The second was read on the 14th December, 
1891 ; Lut the manuscript required revision when our issue of that year 
went to press, and the burden of other duties, together with failing 
health, had, I fear, prevented its revision altogether. 
