9 
To the list of our corresponding members the name of Mr. A. J. Hill, 
‘C.E., has been added. This gentleman is now employed on the Canadian Pacific 
Railway in British Columbia, and has already forwarded to the Club several 
parcels of plants and boxes of beetles, including some species which had not prev- 
iously been found in Canada. You will see on the programme that Professor 
Macoun, another corresponding member, has promised to give us a lecture upon 
his explorations in the North-West. 
I have been able to make a few additions to the Museum of the Ottawa 
Literary and Scientific Society from the specimens collected by our members, 
and hope during the winter to receive some more, as the collections of the past 
season are sorted out. 
In last year’s Inaugural Address I gave a sketch of the life-history of a 
plant, and tried to point out some of the interesting features in vegetable life, 
with the object of inducing some of you, who had not previously done so, to 
take up botany as a study ; and I am happy to say that a few have joined the 
botanists of the Club during the summer. With a view of aiding the efforts of 
these beginners, I propose, if a sufficient number of members express a desire to 
attend, to give, during the coming winter, a series of elementary lectures upon 
botany and the way to study it, while Mr. Harrington and myself will be glad to 
undertake similar lectures on entomology. The number of entomologists in our 
Club is, I am sorry to say, very small, and yet there is not a single branch in the 
whole of natural science which affects so directly every member of society, 
owing to the vital relations that exist between insects and the natural products 
of the country. 
One of the most apparent of the many advantages to be derived from the 
study of natural history is its tendency to methodize the mind by impressing it 
with habits of order and exactness, thus producing all the good effects of mathe- 
matics and logic without the drudgery which to many is found in connection 
with those sciences ; and this is peculiarly the case with that portion of natural 
history which treats of the insect hosts. Their great number and diversity ; their 
beauty of color and form; their metamorphoses, complexity of structure 
and peculiarities of habits, always exactly adapted to the purposes they have to 
accomplish, unite to give an interest to this delightful pursuit not possessed by 
many others. 
One would suppose that, in a country like Canada, where crops of all 
kinds suffer so severely from the ravages of insects, the practical value of ento- 
mological studies would be duly appreciated, especially by the agricultural com- 
munity. But, unfortunately, such is not the case, and these “ minims of crea- 
tion ” individually so puny and weak, but which, united, form such irresistible 
forces, are to-day very little more studied, by the people most concerned, 
than they were fifty years ago. I shall endeavor to show that everything 
