20 



now open to papers on original work in any department. This, it is 

 hoped, will cause some to exercise their power of observation and impel 

 them to advance in the domain of original reseurch — that only true 

 means of making science progressive. 



There is one point I would ask you to think over before the 

 annual meeting, that is the name of the Club, which, I think, should 

 be changed, so that it will read the Ottawa Naturalists' Field Club, 

 instead of the Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Ciub. The change of a name 

 is a serious matter always. Here it can hardly be called a change, 

 rather an alteration, and in my opinion a correction. 



It affords me much pleasure to be al^Ie to announce that His 

 Excellency the Marquess of Lansdowne has graciously consented to 

 become the patron of the Club, and I can only hope that our work may 

 prove as interesting to him as it did to his predecessor, the Marquess of 

 Lome, who always spoke in the kindest manner of our efforts. 



To a person following the study of natural history, nothing is more 

 essential than a knowledge of the system by which the members of that 

 vast kingdom are classified. Without this a very important purpose 

 of a name is lost. A name is not simply for the purpose of saving a 

 description when we wish to indicate an object, but it is also intended 

 to intimate the group to which it belongs, and its position or rank in 

 the natural series. The former is of course of primary importance, 

 but the latter is the deeper and more scientific meaning, the inability 

 to ap[)ly which constitutes the difference between the ordinary observer 

 or collector and the naturalist. 



A person about to travel to a strange country looks on the map to 

 find the position of the spot he is about to visit, notes what other places 

 there are in the neighbourhood and their relative distances. So upon 

 entering the domain of nature should one glance over the map of that 

 country. He should search for his special province and compare it with 

 others, that he may learn its relative position and extent. He should 

 make himself acquainted with its boundaries, and should become 

 familiar with the bordering districts. Should this information be 

 wanting, one of the greatest sources of gratification is lost. In an 

 ordinary ramble innumerable interesting objects are passed by and not 



