BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 
9 
collectiorfs, formed by our s'tudents in other distant localities, that may prove of 
great interest. Circumstances such as these give us reason to hope that our efforts 
to raise up a Botanical Society will be attended with success, and that its labors will 
be beneficial in leading to a more extended knowledge of the indigenous productions 
of Canada. The objects sought by the establishment of a Botanical Society in this 
country are of great importance, both in a scientific and economical point of view. 
The field is broad, and the soil is rich. The extent to which we can cultivate it will 
depend entirely upon the number of the laborers, and the zeal and industry which 
they display. Let us not be disappointed, therefore, with our first -results. Let us 
lay a foundation, and persevere in the work, and workers will gather around us as 
they have done before in the Botanical Societies of other countries. To organiza- 
tions of this kind, more than -to any other means, are we indebted for the advanced 
state -of botanical science at this day ; and in a country such as this, it is especially 
needful to have a wide-spread organization in order to elicit satisfactory results. 
In an attempt to organize a Society such as this, we may confidently appeal to many 
classes of the community. The theologian and moralist see in the vegetable king- 
dom a display of the power and wisdom and goodness of our Creator, and beautiful 
types of spiritual teaching ; the medical man recognizes in it the source of his most 
potent; drugs ; the sanitary reformer knows that the simpler forms of vegetation 
are often the cause, and more frequently the index, of widely spread diseases ; the 
lawyer finds in the microscopical structure of vegetable products a ready means of 
detecting frauds, adulterations and poisonings ; the commercial man recognizes the 
value of a science having such bearings, and directly devoted to the extension of 
the sphere of industry ; the spinner and paper-maker must here obtain their know- 
ledge of the mechanical condition of vegetable fibres ; the farmer, the gardener, the 
orchardist, the vine-grower, the brewer, the dyer, the tanner, and the lumberman, 
must all apply to botany for an explanation of matters that daily come before them 
in their various avocations. As an utilitarian institution then, our Society is worthy, 
and will no doubt receive, warm support ; but it is to be hoped that many zealous 
laborers will enter the field from a higher motive — a desire to promote the cause of 
science. 
NOTES AND SUGGESTIONS RELATIVE TO tHE ESTABLISHMENT OP 
A BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
By J. P. Litchfield, M. D., Peofessok of Medical Jueispeudence in the Uni- 
versity OF Queen's College, and Physician-Superintendent of the Crimi- 
nal AND Female Asylums for Lunatics, Rockwood. 
Dr. Litchfield has pleasure in complying with the request to make a note of 
any suggestions that occur to him in regard to the formation of a Botanical Soci- 
c 
