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a school edition of same. The puWication of these two editions would give a 

 stimulus to the study of plants, and indirectly would tend to a better knowledge 

 of weeds on the part of the rising generation." 



As an admirer of Abbe Provancher, and one who, moreover, has followed 

 closely in his footsteps for the last ten years, I beg leave to express an opinion 

 on the matter. 



There is no doubt that the name of Provancher has a standing of its own, 

 and a prominent one too, in the history of Canadian science. Under struggling 

 circumstances, without special training nor laboratory facilities, far from technical 

 libraries he has however accomplished a stupendous amount of work and cleared 

 the ground most efficiently for future workers. 



The "Flore Canadienne" was a most extraordinary achievement for the time, 

 and though fifty years have rolled over this book, fifty years of feverish activity, 

 though it has now run obsolete on account of the steady advance in the botanical 

 field, we must admit, — whatever our langage is — that no other book, as yet, has 

 attempted to displace it. 



Nevertheless I venture the statement that the proposal of reprinting Provan- 

 cher is a rather an acknowledgment of inability. And to go the whole length of 

 my opinion at once, I consider that such a reprint, if the essential features are 

 preserved, would be a step backwards. 



In the course of the 'last half-century, the systematic botany of North Amer- 

 ica has benefited by the labors of a host of serious workers : virtually unknown 

 regions have been penetrated, thousands of new species established and the no- 

 menclature more than once disturbed and subjected to new regulations. 



Mentioning but the Province of Quebec, the careful survey of Prof. ]M. L. 

 Fernald and his Harvard friends has shown in the Gaspe Peninsula the existence 

 of an altogether unknown flora akin to that of the Rockies. Of this fact, of 

 course, Provancher had no suspicion. 



Such genera as Isoetes, Potamogeton, Jnnciis, Cares, Riihus and especially 

 Crataegus have revealed an amazing wealth of species. Everybody knows the 

 hawthorn and appreciates it more or less, but very few would suppose that the 

 American species now number about i,ooo. The joint work of Charles Sprague 

 Sargent and J. G. Jack have shown the limestones ridges of Montreal and the 

 continguous sihales to be one of the richest regions in the whole world in forms of 

 Crataegus. Though there is much yet to do in the genus, it can already be fore- 

 seen that the new Flora of Quebec will be hound to treat as much as 6o or 70 

 species. 



I do not wonder now about my perplexities while first trying to separate the 

 Longueuil Crataegi with Provancher as a guide. It was only when I opened the 

 pages of the seventh edition of Gray's Manual and when I was made acquainted 

 with Mr. C. S. Sargent, that I began to see something into it. 



Provancher believed the distribution of plants in Canada to be zonal accord- 

 ing to latitude,^ and consequently to be approximately indentical from the Atlantic 

 coast to the Pacific ; this belief he had in mind when he entitled his work : "Flore 

 Canadienne". This generalisation has not proved successful. We know to-day, 

 by the collections of Macoun and others, that the Prairie region, the Rockies, the 

 Pacific slope have each an endemic flora, and a "Canadian Flora" embodying the 

 whole of the territory, would be an immense enterprise. 



Properly speaking, Provancher covers but the central portion of the Province 



