88 Canadian Record of Science. 



ment of the Geological Survey, Dr. A. T. Drunmiond, Dr. 

 John Bell, and Dr. A. H. Mackay, of Halifax. Montreal, 

 however, kept up its reputation in this line by the work 

 and writings of Mr. D. A. P. Watt, Dr. Kemp and others, 

 special mention being made of Mr. D'Urban, of the Geolo- 

 gical Survey. Mr. D. E. McCord wrote a monogram on 

 the Ferns of Canada, embracing, of course, those of the 

 Montreal district, and this was followed by " Notes on 

 Canadian Ferns " by Mr. J. B. Goode,Vol. IX (New Series), 

 p. 49 (1879) ; but the next most important contribu- 

 tion to the Botany of Canada, since Dr. Holmes' collection 

 was made, was that of Mr. Watt, published in the Cana- 

 dian Naturalist and Geologist in 1864. This embraced a 

 list of the Acrogens of the country, so far as they had 

 then been discovered and determined. In making this 

 list Mr. Watt was assisted by Mr. J. Macoun and others, 

 Mr. A. T. Drummond having placed a very complete cata- 

 logue of the lichens of Canada at his disposal. The next 

 considerable addition to the knowledge of the local flora 

 was made by Professor Penhallow, who reported on the 

 plants he found growing on St. Helen's Island in 1891. 

 The present writer began to make notes on the botany of 

 the district in 1885, and has continued to do so up to the 

 present time. Taking Dr. Holmes' list as the basis of his 

 observations, he has found every plant on that list, with 

 the exception of about ten species, which, with the destruc- 

 tion of the forests and the draining of the swamps that 

 existed eighty years ago, have either become wlioUy 

 extinct or at least very rare in this neighbourhood. But 

 he has been able to report a great many additional species, 

 some of which, no doubt, then grew on the island, although 

 they had escaped Dr. Holmes' observation, many of 

 which, however, have been introduced since 1820. Collec- 

 tions spread over a period of thirteen years may be expected 

 to be more complete than sueli as were confined to three or 

 four years, which seems to have been the duration of Dr. 



