XXV. From The Botanical Club of Canada, through DR. A. H. MACKAY. During the past year, 1899, the work of the club has been on the same lines as indicated in detail in the report of the previous year. In Nova Scotia over 800 schedules of observations representing fully every county in the province, have been filled and sent in to the education department. Summaries of and inferences from these will be published elsewhere this year as soon as the necessary compilations are made. In the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, some interest in this public school phase of recording observations has been taken, the Nova Scotia schedule being used. As mentioned in last year's report, hundreds of these schedules are much more full than, and presumably as accurate as, those appended hereto, filled at the thirteen stations from St. Stephen and Yarmouth to Vancouver by members of the Botanical Club. There was no extraordinary development of botanical activity in the usual lines in the different provinces during the year. The opening of the Marine Biological Laboratory of Canada at St. Andrews, New Brunswick, was an important event in a new direction. The laboratory will remain at the same place during the present season. Officers of the Botanical Club of Canada, 1899. President John Macoun, M.A., F.L.S., Ottawa. General Secretary-Treasurer-A. H. MacKay, LL.D., Halifax. Newfoundland-Rev. A. C. Waghorne.1 Prince Edward Island-Principal John MacSwain, Charlottetown. Assiniboia-Thomas R. Donnelly, Esq., Pheasant Forks. Saskatchewan-Rev. C. W. Bryden, Willoughby. British Columbia (Mainland)-J. K. Henry, B.A., High School, Vancouver. Vancouver Island-A. J. Pineo, B.A., High School, Victoria. 1 On account of ill-health he passed the winter in Jamaica, and as we go to press we have a newspaper report of his death.-ED. Constitution, &c., of the Botanical Club of Canada. The Botanical Club of Canada was organized by a committee of section four of the Royal Society of Canada, at its meeting in Montreal, May 29th, 1891. The object is to promote by concerted local efforts and otherwise the exploration of the flora of every portion of British America, to publish complete lists of the same in local papers as the work goes on, to have these lists collected and carefully examined in order to arrive at a correct knowledge of the precise character of our flora and its geographical distribution, and to carry on systematically seasonal observations on botanical phenomena. The intention is to stimulate, with the least possible paraphernalia of constitution or rules, increased activity among botanists in each locality, to create a corps of collecting botanists wherever there may be few or none at present, to encourage the formation of field clubs, to publish lists of local floras in the local press, to conduct from year to year exact phenological observations, etc.; for which purposes the secretaries for the provinces may appoint secretaries for counties or districts, who will be expected, in like manner, to transmit the same impetus to as many as possible in their own spheres of action. Members and secretaries, while carrying out plans of operation which they may find to be promising of success in their particular districts, will report as frequently as convenient to the officer under whom they may be immediately acting. Before the end of January, at the latest, reports of the work done within the various provinces during the year ended December the 31st previous, should be made by the secretaries for the provinces to the general secretary, from which the annual report to the Royal Society shall be principally compiled. By the first of January, therefore, the annual reports of county secretaries and members should be sent in to the secretaries for the provinces. To cover the expenses of official printing and postage, a nominal fee of twenty-five cents per annum is expected for membership (or one dollar for five years in advance, or five dollars for life membership). Secretaries for the provinces, when remitting the amount of fees from members to the general treasurer, are authorized to deduct the necessary expenses for provincial office work, transmitting vouchers for the same with the balance. The names of those reporting any kind of valuable botanical work during the year will be published in the list of active members, even PHIL SOC: should the payment of fees be forgotten. All payments are credited to the current year and the future. Lapsed active membership can, therefore, be restored at any time without the payment of arrears-for there are no arrears recorded in the Botanical Club of Canada. PHENOLOGICAL STATIONS AND OBSERVERS OF THE BOTANICAL CLUB OF CANADA, 1899. St. Stephen, N.B.-J. Vroom, Esq. Yarmouth, N.S.-S. A. Starratt, Esq.; Seymour Critcher, Esq. Berwick, N.S.-Miss Ida A. Parker. Halifax, N.S.-Harry Piers, Esq. Musquodoboit Harbour, N.S.-Rev. James Rosborough. New Glasgow, N.S.-Miss Maria Cavanagh. Wallace, N.S.-Miss Mary E. Charman. Charlottetown, P.E.I.-John MacSwain, Esq. Beatrice, Muskoka, Ontario.-Miss Alice Hollingworth. Pheasant Forks, Assiniboia.-Thomas R. Donnelly, Esq. Olds, Alberta.-T. N. Willing, Esq. Willoughby, Saskatchewan.-Rev. C. W. Bryden. Vancouver, B.C.-J. K. Henry, Esq., B.A. EXPLANATION OF ANNOTATIONS OVER THE DATE FIGURES IN THE FOL |