34 The Ottawa Naturalist. [May 



americana was found by Prof. Macoun along the shore of the 

 Ottawa near Tetreauville. 



BOTANICAL ARBORETUM AT CENTRAL EXPERIMENTAL FARM. 

 A matter of much interest to the members of our 

 club is the advantage we now have in free access to the 

 Botanic Garden at the Central Experimental Farm. This 

 garden is now assuming the position of a valuable educational'^ 

 adjunct to the City of Ottawa. Begun in 1887 by the botanist 

 of the experimental farms, Dr. J. Fletcher, it has been added to 

 year^'after year and is now well worthy of a visit by all interested 

 in botany or gardening. It is now in charge of Mr. W. T. 

 Macoun, the foreman of forestry, who has published several 

 interesting notes in the Ottawa Naturalist. The collections 

 have been increased from all available sources, the chief effort 

 having been to gather together and have properly labelled a 

 reference collection of all plants which would grow in this 

 climate. Last year a great deal was done to get the perennial 

 border in order and there are now no less than 907 species and 

 varieties of perennials included in 222 genera. This number too 

 will be very much increased next year, as seeds of nearly 400 

 additional species have been procured, which will be forced in 

 the greenhouse early this spring and many of which will flower 

 next autumn. 



At the end of 1896 there were nearly 2,000 different kinds 

 of trees and shrubs in the arboretum, most of which have been 

 there, or in the nursery rows, for one or more winters and will 

 probably be found hardy at Ottawa. This question will be 

 pretty well tested by the severe winters we have experienced 

 this year and last. Arrangements have been made for increas- 

 ing several of the groups next spring. The collections of some of 

 the groups of flowering and otherwise ornamental shrubs are 

 now very complete, as for instance, the genus Syringa called in 

 English Lilac, is represented by 88 different named forms. 



