The Royal Society of Canada. 429 



tant points receive additional light, and facts of interest in 

 various directions connected with the early flora and his- 

 tory of the country are stated. The paper is the first part 

 of that which, at a later date, will present a complete out- 

 line of Canadian botany. It is, therefore, appropriate that 

 it should embrace a list of all the botanical writers for the 

 period named, together with brief biographical data, and a 

 list of each author's publications so far as they relate to the 

 botany of Canada. 



In an account of " The Flora of Hudson Strait, with Re- 

 marks on the General Distribution of Plants on the Northern 

 Shores of America," Dr. Lawson states that the northern 

 plants form an element of interest in the Canadian flora, 

 and have received special attention from Sir John Richard- 

 son, Sir Joseph Hooker, and other writers. Collections 

 have been made from time to time and lists published, as in 

 Myer's " Labrador Flora" and the reports of the Arctic ex- 

 peditions. But our knowledge of these plants is still neces- 

 sarily imperfect. Recent collections have been made by 

 Dr. Bell and others at stations in Hudson Strait, and lists 

 published from determinations made by Prof. Macoun. 

 These have been supplemented by additional material and 

 information obtained in the summer of 1886, by Mr. Payne, 

 of the Meteorological Service, and Mr. J. W. Tyrrell, F.L.S. 



Mr. Payne made careful observations on the nature of the 

 special localities or habitats where the plants were picked, 

 as regards nature of soil, elevation, protection, &c. ; also of 

 the periodical phenomena, dates of budding or sprouting, 

 leafing, flowering, seed ripening and autumn withering. 

 These observations are tabulated. One object of this paper 

 is to assist in removing the hindrance to the collection of 

 material and information of this desirable kind, due to the 

 circumstance that many of our northern plants are imper- 

 fectly described under a multiplicity of names through 

 scattered and rare or inaccessible works. 



The geological papers were numerous and embraced 

 several of importance. "The TJtica Formation in Canada," 

 by H. M. Ami, gave a sketch of that division of the ' Cam- 

 brian Silurian' or ' Ordovician System,' in which new facts 



