- 78 - 
Exflanation of Plate XXVII 
1. Along the Nipigon River, looking south from Nipigon. Palisades show at right, while 
at base of the mountain at extreme left is the bog shown in Fig. 3. 
2. Looking north from north end of Ombabika Bay, L. Nipigon; a gentle glacial till slope 
covered with spruce-sphagnum muskeg, as shown in Fig. 4. 
3. Spruc«-sphagnum muskeg southeast of Nipigon. S. capillaceum forms most of this floor 
in a deep bed (No. 2260). 
4. Spruce-sphagnum muskeg north of Ombabika Bay, L. Nipigon. Contains Sphagnum 
magellanicum and 5 . Girgensohnii, most of the floor being covered with 5 . capillaceum above which 
rise mounds of A. Wulfianum. 
5. Locomotive Island, Ombabika Bay, north end of L. Nipigon. Ahgular blocks of Kee- 
wenawan diabase supporting thin stunted forest of black spruce. Most talus slopes in Nipigon 
region are of this character. 
(Photographs by O. E. and Grace K. Jennings) 
ELLEN HUTCHINS— A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
W. H. Pearson 
Professor Evans having dedicated a new hepatic, Herberta Hutchinsiae, 
to the memory of Miss Hutchins, a short sketch of her life and work may not 
be unacceptable to the readers of the Bryologist There have been many 
women who have distinguished themselves in the realm of science, and amongst 
those of the early part of the last century in the domain of botany stands pre- 
eminently the name of Miss Hutchins. Robert Brown, one of the greatest of 
British botanists, established the genus Hutchinsia in her honor; Sir Joseph 
Paxton, in referring to the genus, says, “in compliment to Miss Hutchins, an 
accomplished Irish cryptogamist.” Hutchinsia petrea is one of our early flowering 
cruciferous plants, found in limestone districts, and I always feel a thrill of 
pleasure when I see it on wall or rocks in some of our picturesque valleys 
in Derbyshire and Wales. Miss Hutchins was the first to find the rare and 
beautiful hepatic, Jubula Hutchinsiae, which Sir William Jackson Hooker named 
after the discoverer. 
Readers of Professor Evans’s severely scientific description of Herberta 
Hutchinsiae would scarcely imagine that such an apparently dry subject could 
conjure up remembrances which stir the blood, but I treasure as one of my most 
valued possessions a microscopic .slide of Scapania purpurascens, given me to 
mount nearly forty years ago by Dr. Carrington, from specimens collected by 
Miss Hutchins. It is still a beautiful object, having retained its color for over 
one hundred years. 
In a valuable contribution to the “Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy’’ 
for 1915, by Canon Lett, on a “Census Report on the Mosses of Ireland,” a 
chronological list of Irish museologists is given, Miss Hutchins having the place 
of honor so far as length of description is concerned, and I cannot do better 
than give the Canon’s account of her life and work, with the hope that it may 
encourage other women to study this delightful field of botany: 
“Miss Ellen Hutchins, daughter of Thomas Hutchins, was born in 1785 
at Ballylickey, between Bantry and Glengarriff, in the County of Cork, and 
died in 1815, and was buried in Bantry churchyard. She was educated in Dub- 
