BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 5 
than in most civilized or lialf civilized countries on the face of the earth. At the 
close of the eighteenth century only five dissertations on botanical subjects had 
been published by the whole medical graduates of the great continent of America. 
Since then the indefatigable labors of such men as Michaux, Torrey, Harvey, Curtis, 
Boott, Engelmann, Tuckermann, Sullivant, Lesquereux, and especially of one whose 
name and fame rise above all the rest, Asa Gray, have brought our knowledge of 
the botany of the United States on a level with that of the best botanized countries 
of Europe. The Flora of Canada has also been elaborated since then by one who 
still presides over the destinies of botanical science, not in England alone, for his 
authority is recognized wherever the science is pursued. But, during a period of 
nearly thirty years, very little has been added to our published knowledge of Cana- 
dian botany. Information respecting our indigenous plants must still be sought in 
the work of Sir William Hooker, issued from the Colonial office in England in 1833. 
That work, founded as it necessarily was, on dried specimens carried home by 
passing travellers, afforded to the botanical world an admirable example of how 
much could be made out of slender material when in good hands. Unimpeachable 
as a work of science, unsurpassed in the whole range of botanical literature in the 
accuracy and beauty of its illustrations, the Flora Boreali-Americmta afforded the 
means of developing still more fully a knowledge of the Canadian Elora. The 
North American Flora of Torrey and Gray, and the Manual of the Botany of the 
Northern States, offered additional temptations to the pursuit ; but advances have 
not been made commensurate with the advantages that were offered : we have still, 
therefore, the singular anomaly of a country distinguished by its liberal patronage 
to science, dependent for its information respecting its native plants on the descrip- 
tions of specimens culled by early travellers. What was thirty years ago, and is 
now, of the highest value, can only in a partial manner meet the wants of the coun- 
try in these days, when new manufactures and new forms of industry, seeking new 
products to work upon, are daily springing up around us. We desire to place the 
science of Botany on a more satisfactory footing in Canada than that which it now 
holds ; we desire to increase the existing stock of knowledge ; we desire to diffuse 
a taste for the study, so as to add to the number of laborers now in the field ; and 
we desire to place on record new observations and discoveries, as they arise. The 
Botanical Society is designed as a means of carrying out purposes such as these. 
Extensive circulation was given sometime ago, by Canadian newspapers, to a report 
that Sir Wm. Hooker was on his way to Canada with a staff of assistants, to explore 
the botany of the country. I have the best authority for stating that that report 
was without foundation. It probably originated in certain proposals that were 
made to the Colonial office regarding the publication of a series of popular Manuals 
of Colonial Botany ; but no expedition was ever contemplated by Sir Wm. Hooker, 
or any one else, at the instance of the Government. On the contrary, recent com- 
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