Lecture on Botany. 335 



(for the same period of V years) are of short duration, forming 

 generally in the W. or N.W., and the electricity varies in kind. 



The months of April, May and June bring returning summer ; 

 the nights of July and part of August are generally oppressive, 

 the temperature often remains at 70" during the night : but 

 the Canadian autumn is very pleasant. The woods with its 

 leaves of a thousand varied tints, and the blue and cloudless sky, 

 with frosty nights, reminds us that the good times of the merry 

 sleigh bells are near, 



Notwithstanding these vicissitudes and extremes of temperature, 

 the soil is very productive and vegetation prolific and rapid ; and 

 it has again pleased an all- wise Providence^ during the present 

 year, to crown the labours of the Canadian husbandman with a 

 bountiful and abundant harvest. 



ART. XXX. — Introductory Lecture to the Course on Botany, de- 

 livered before the Students of Arts and Medicine, McG-ill 

 College, Session, 1857. By James Baknston, M. D., Edin. 

 Professor of Botany, University of McGill College, Montreal. 



Gentlemen, — The course of Lectures on Botany upon which 

 we are about to enter, is authorised to be delivered in connexion 

 with the Lectures on general Natural History, under the auspices 

 of the Principal of this University. Being called upon to per- 

 form the responsible oflSce of instructing you in this department 

 of Science, there are considerations that prompt me to offer one 

 or two suggestions for approval, Avhich will serve to ameliorate 

 the austerity of the circumstances under which we meet. You 

 can readily conceive the difficulties under which a teacher usu- 

 ally labours, who is brought for the first time in presence of a 

 class of intelligent Students — the unpleasant tax upon his ner- 

 vous modesty, the severe trial of his mental and physical energies 

 accompanied by an inward consciousness of his possible inability 

 to perform satisfactorily the duties before him. 



The consciousness of such difficulties generally implants a desire 

 in the teacher to meet faithfully the requirements of his office 

 employing both time and labour in their fulfilment. The sincere 

 and candid acknowledgment of them may, therefore, be received 

 as a direct apology for such inefficiencies as may become appa- 



