348 BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. [NoVembeV, 



about the nativity of plants will continue to serve as stimulants 

 to pigmy intellects, and even be amusements to minds of a higher 

 order and more catholic tendencies, till the subject is treated in 

 a general, comprehensive, and philcsophical maimer. Then the 

 geography of plants, like other departments of physical geo- 

 graphy, will be studied in a way worthy of its importance, aud 

 divested of what renders it both repulsive and ridiculous; the 

 abortive attempts to classify species into natives, denizens, colo- 

 nists, etc., will be superseded by investigations founded on facts, 

 not on baseless assumptions. 



It is gratifying to know that our British Isles are not like 

 thankless recipients, scapegraces who take and give nothing in 

 return. For the ornamental Mimulus luteus, (Enothera biennis, 

 Diervilla trifida, etc., we have sent to America the useful Timothy- 

 grass, Phleum pratense, Dandelion, and Hound's-tongue, with 

 several things for which the colonists will not thank us, such as 

 Thistles, Buttercups, etc. 



The Vegetable Kingdom is not exempted from the general law 

 to which all created things must submit, viz. that of continuous 

 change. 



BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 

 Botanical Society or Canada. 



An extra meeting of the Society, called for the purpose of disposing of 

 an accumnlation of interesting papers, was held on Thursday evening, 38th 

 March. There was a full attendance of members and subscribers. The 

 Very Eev. Principal Leitch, President, occupied the chair. Letters were 

 read from Sir William Hooker, K.H., Director of the Eoyal Gardens, Kew, 

 and from Dr. J. H. Balfour, Professor of Botany in the Edinburgh Uni- 

 versity. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. Suggestions for Observations to be made by the Members of the 

 Botanical Society of Canada, during the ensuing summer, with reference 

 to a Colonial Elora, proposed to be published by the British Government. 

 By Sir William J. Hooker, K.H., Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, in 

 a letter to Professor Lawson. Botanists will be gratified to hear that a 

 series of Colonial Floras are in preparation, and one of them, that of Hong- 

 kong, is published. We have not room for the letter sent to the Secretary 

 by Sir W. J. Hooker on the interesting subject of a new Canadian Flora, 

 which w^ill be a welcome addition to our literature. On the motion of 

 Judge Logic, of Hamilton, seconded by Andrew Drummond, Esq., of the 

 Montreal Bank, the Society's thanks were voted to Sir William Hooker, 

 and the Secretary was requested to communicate to him the desire of the 



