This Magazine is published bi-monthly, and is conducted by a Com- J. W. DAWSON, LL.D., F.R.S., Principal of McGill College. T. STERRY HUNT, A.M., F.R.S., Chemist to Geological Survey of Canada. PROF. S. P. ROBBINS. " REV. A. F. KEMT. General Editor.-DAVID A. P. WATT. EX OFFICIO. The Corresponding and Recording Secretaries of the Natural History Reminiscences of Amherst College; By Edward Hitchcock, Notes on the Habitats and Varieties of some Canadian Ferns; THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. SECOND SERIES. MICHAUX AND HIS JOURNEY IN CANADA. By the ABBÉ OVIDE BRUNET, Professor of Botany at the Laval University, Quebec.* In It is well known to botanists, that the Flora Boreali-Americana of Michaux often fails to indicate the precise localities of the plants there first described, and that, in consequence, many of these plants are either still unknown to collectors, or excessively rare. the hope of being able to determine the localities of those plants which this author has noticed as occurring in Canada, I attempted several years since to trace the steps in his journey to the Saguenay, and to Hudson's Bay. At that time however, the only materials at my disposal were the Flora, and some scattered notes in the works of his son. I had not then seen his Herbarium, which is rich in notes of localities; and the manuscript journal of his journey, in the library of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, was unknown to me. Since that time however, I have been able to consult the original collections of Michaux, which are in part at the Jardin des Plantes of Paris, and in part in the museum of Mr. Benjamin Delessert of that city. The American Philosophical Society has moreover permitted me to copy the manuscript journal, for which favor I take this occasion of expressing my thanks. * TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.-This interesting paper was printed a few months since, in French, by Mr. Brunet, for private distribution only. I have accordingly translated it for publication in the Canadian Naturalist, suppressing some unessential portions, with the approbation of the author; who has added to it a map of the region from Lake St. John to Hudson's Bay. A MS. map by the Jesuit Laure, who was a missionary in Canada during the early part of the last century, is the chief authority for the region beyond Lake St. John, though other old French maps were consulted. The map of Laure is in the library of the Canadian Parliament.-T. S. H. VOL. I. W No. 5. |