JuXE 7, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



629 



for Newfoundlaud; Rev. W. A. Burmaii, B. 

 D., Winnipeg, for Manitoba; Mr. T. X. 

 Willing, Calgary, for Alberta: Rev. C. W. 

 Bryden, Battleford, for Saskatchewan; Mr. 

 A. J. Pineo, B. A., High School, Victoria, 

 for British Columbia. The foregoing officers 

 were elected on the 25th of May, 1S94. 



An interesting report of the work of the 

 year 1893-94 was presented at last year's 

 May meeting of the Royal Society at Ottawa, 

 and is published in the Proceedings. What 

 is most striking in it is the evidence which 

 it affords that tlie creation of the Society 

 has proved an incentive to increased in- 

 dustry in field work in distant and out-of- 

 the-way places — in Newfoundland (special 

 attention being called to Mr. Waghorue's 

 work), in the Territories, in British Colum- 

 bia and on Prince Edward Island. In 

 British Columbia 100 members bad been 

 enrolled through Mr. Pineo's efforts, and 

 1,400 species (of which 30 were new) col- 

 lected under the direction of Prof. Macouu. 

 In Nova Scotia the work was largelj' asso- 

 ciated with phenological observations. Be- 

 sides excellent local work, the operations in 

 Ontario included a series of papers by Mr. 

 James Macoun on the plants in the Her- 

 barium of the Geological and Natural His- 

 tory Survej' at Ottawa, which appeared in 

 the Canadian JRecord of Science. In Quebec 

 the most important work done was that of 

 Prof Penhallow, in the determination of 

 the species of American Coniferie by the 

 structure of the stem, a research of recog- 

 nized importance in the development of 

 phanerogamic botany. In all the provinces 

 the creation of the Club has already had a 

 marked educational effect, the more intelli- 

 gent teachers in many localities having en- 

 gaged with energy in the work. Before 

 the formation of the Club the only Canadian 

 institution whose operations covered the 

 Dominion was the Survej- just mentioned, 

 to the botanical work of which ilr. Robin- 

 son makes laudatory mention in his Ex- 



ploits Valley report. In all the older prov- 

 inces, however, there have long been scien- 

 tific societies of whose objects botanical ex- 

 ploration formed a leading feature. 



The gift by Mr. W. C. McDonald, of 

 Montreal, of tliirty-five acres of convenient 

 and suitable land for the formation of a 

 Botanic Garden in connection with McGill 

 University, must very materially aid in the 

 promotion of botanical research in Montreal 

 and wUl prove a prized boon to Prof. Pen- 

 hallow and his students. This gift, the 

 deeds for which were formally signed on the 

 3d Lnst,, isonly one of many substantial proofs 

 that Mr. McDonald has given of his interest 

 in scientific education. At the convocation 

 of the University on the 30th ult. the \'ice- 

 principal was able to announce that, during 

 the session just closing, the students had for 

 the first time surpassed the thousand. That 

 this augmentation is largelj- due to the in- 

 creased attendance of the Scientific Facul- 

 ties (medicine, comparative medicine and 

 applied science) is an open .secret. Ten 

 yeai-s ago the attendance did not reach five 

 hundred. As the vice-principal (Dr. Alex- 

 ander Johnson) pointed out, increase of 

 numbers, though desirable, is not the sum- 

 nmm bomcm. He hoped the time would 

 come when all graduates would be first of 

 all gi-aduates in arts. Prof. Callendar, 

 without decrying Latin or Greek, depre- 

 cated the neglect by scientific students of 

 their mother tongue, which every student 

 of science should l)e able to write correctly 

 and clearly. 



Professor Bovey, D. C. L., M. Inst. C. E., 

 Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science, af- 

 ter sajiug that the students enrolled in his 

 Facultj' this year numbered 187, an in- 

 crease of 15 per cent, over the previous 

 j'ear, mentioned among recent improve- 

 ments a course in Kinematics (Professor 

 Nicholson); the adihtion of practical min- 

 ing and underground surveying to the 

 course in Mining Engineering (Professor 



