Systremafff,es ffigmflcMrtwm@@amada frm atr@trtraw@ t88@-t@g@ WilliamJ. Cody Douglas B.O. Savile MichaelJ. Sarazin Biosystematics Research Centre Agriculture Canada Historical Series No. 28 1 986 HISTORICAL SERIES No. 28, available from Director Biosystematlcs Research Centre Research Branch, Agri-culture Canada Ottawa, Ontario KlA 0C6 6Minister of Supply and Services Canada 1986 cat. No. A54-2/28 ISBN: 0-662-54239-8 Printed l-986 cover photo Fletcher memorial- fountain at fhe Central- ExDerimentaf Farm staff editor Shanon M. Rudnitski Janes Fletcher Aeknowledgments Special thanks is extended to the staff of the BiosysLematics Research Centre for their cooperation in the preparation of the manuscript: in particular, Lo Jack Martin for his early work on the project; to Dr. Bernard Boivin for permitting access to his exfensive files on Canadian botanists; and to Dr. laurent LeSage (comments and suggestlons from Drs. J. CayoueLte and Y. Dalp6 were greatly appneciated) for translating the original Engtish version into French. The excellent typing of Barbara l4arie Hilliker and Rosanna Menchini is also much appreciated. Contents iv Acknowl-edgments Foreword vi Chapter I Introduction I Trhlrav hvavn6i 4n,rn,i ,*n.,,8s of systematlc biology in Canada I K.W. Neatby and growth of systematics in the department 2 Chapter 2 Bofany 4 Early collectors of plants in Canada 4 Some early Canadian boLanists 5 James Fletcher and botany 5 The development of the Vascular Plant Herbarium 6 Botanical contributions bv staff members 11 Chapfer 3 Mycology 23 Early collecLors of fungi in Canada 23 The first Canadian mycologisLs 24 James FleLcher and mycology 25 Growth of mycology and its relation to botany and plant pathology 26 Foundation of the division of botany and development of the National Mycologicaf Herbarium 28 Mycological- contributions by staff members 36 Chapter 4 Entomology 43 Early collectors of insects in Canada 43 The first Canadian entomologists 43 James Fletcher and entomology 45 The deyelopment of the Canadian Natlonal Colfection of Insects (including arachnids and nematodes ) 46 Entomological (arachnological and nematological) contributions by staff members 50 References 73 Appendix I Dominion botanists, Dominion entomol-ogists, and directors 1886-1986 77 Appendlx II Index to names 78 Forerord This publication commemorates 100 years of systematics in Agriculture Canada, from 1886 to 1986. James Fletcher inaugurafed systemaLics in the department when he donated his personal collections of insects and plants to Agricultune Canada in 1886. Al-though he assumed his duties in that year, he was onty officlally appointed Dominion entomologist and bofanist in the following year. In 1973, aII of the systematic programs in the deparfment were united in the Biosystematics Research Institute. In 1984, systematic sLudies on nonmedical- bactenia were added to the mandate. In f986 tne institute was renamed the Biosystematics Reseanch Centre (SnC). At the present time, BRC conducts systematic research on the classification of insects, arachnids, nematodes, vascular plants, fungi, and nonmedical bacteria. The centre, wiLh a staff of 55 professionals, provides an identification service that is widely used by other government agencies, both federal and provincial, by unlversities, and by individual-s. It is responsib}e for developing and maintaining the Canadian nationaf colfections of insecLs, arachnids, and nematodes (12 800 000 specimens), for the Agriculture Canada Vascul-ar Pl-ant Herbarj-um (780 000 collections), fon the National- Mycological- Henbarium (250 000 collections), and for the Nationaf Collection of Fungus and Bacteriaf Cultures. Two separate libraries supporN the activities of BRC, the zoology library in the K.W. Nealby Building and the Pl-ant Research Library in the William Saunders Building. The fol-lowing mandate guides the Biosystematics Research Centre in its present operations: . to conducf research to dlscriminate and correctly name taxa that occur in Canada or are otherwise of importance to Canadians, and to publish the nesults; . to contribute to science and 1ts uses by developing natural cl-assiflcations and interpreting evolutionary relationships; . to develop and maintain the national colfections of Iiving or preserved organisms from Canada and el-sewhere to provide a reference base for biosystematic research on diversity and distributionr and for identification purposes; . to provide a national- identification service for clients, publish guides to help othens make identifications, and supply relevant informationl . to provide inventories and fforistic and faunistic studies for selected regions, habitats, or host groups Lo permit effective assessmenL and monitoring of environments, thelr quality, and their changesl . to pnovide leadership and cooperation in the development of biosystematics in Canada by making expertise available for traj-ning and other educational punposes. Geral-d A. Mulligan Director 3 March 1986 CHAPTER 1 Introduetion The Canadian government invol-vement 1n botany and entomology had parallel beginnings with the appointmenf of one indivi.dual-. Thls was James F1etcher. Fl-etchen, a young Englishman in the employ oll The Bank of British North America, was posted to Canada from London in 1874. He was born in Ashe in Kent County, England, in 1852 and was educated at Kingfs School, Rochester. After 2 years he resigned from the bank to join the Library of Parliament as an accountant. In the following years he derreloped a considenable interest in natural histony, and in particuLar, botany and entomology. As a result of this interest he was named honorary entomologist in the Dominion Department of Agriculture in 1884, but he retained his posi-tlon in the Libnary of Panliament. When the Experimental Farms Branch was ol:ganized in 1886' William Saunders, a distinguished pioneer entomologist, was named its first dinector . An order-in-council dated 18 .luly 1886, sponsored by the Ministen of Agriculture, recommended that trJames Fletcher', aged 35, aL present in the Office of the Library of Parliament, and acting since 1884 as Hononary Dominion Entomologist, be appointed to fill such joint position Ientomologist and botanist] .rt When James Fletcher died in November 1908, he left behind him a weLl-l-ald foundation for entomology and botany in Canada. The beginnings sf systemtic biology in Canada To appreciate the problems faced by Fletcher and ofher biologists in the eanly years of the Experimental Farms System, we must look bniefly at the early growth of biology elsewhene in Canada etnd in ofher countries. Systematics is at the foundation of alL biology, because a system of nomenclatune is the language by which knowledge of any group of organisms is communicated. Thus systemafics approximatellT marks the start of any biological discipline. Even in Eunope, biology in the universities until after t850 was mainly in the hands of the clergy--often dedicated but inevitabty self-taught. Many such teachers, including Darwints, were effective; but they were seriously Iimited in numbers and in scope. Mayr (1982) notes that European biology became markedly more professional aften 1870. In the United States, as far as can be judged from Ewan (1969) for the botanical- disciplines, the change seems to have been more gradual, perhaps from 1870 to 1890' Ewan notes that by 1900 the major Amenican phanerogamic herbaria were in exj-stence. In Canada the development of systematic lbiology was inevitably further delayed by the small and scattered population. To judge from the conclusions of McKillop (1983) for the University of Toronto, although the decade 1881-1890 was one of intell-ectual pioneerj-ng in Canada (the Royal- Society was founded in 1882), the unj-versities were aimi,ng only at cultivating the minds of students morally and socially. They offer:ed little or no encouragement for original investigation on critical inquiry. Professional and practical -a- attainments were of litt]e concern. A studenf determined to study biology seriously had to go to the United States or Europe and all too often did not return. Fonward (1977 ) notes that even after a biology department was formed at fhe University of Toronto, emphasis was almost entirel-y on zoology. E.C. Jeffrey, later to become a famous plant anatomlst, joined fhe staff in 1891 as the first botanist; but he left in 1902 in utter frustration to neturn to Harvard. Thus, in this leading univensity there could be no sounce of trained phanerogamists, let alone mycologists, untll after the turn of fhe c enEury. fn these circumstances Canadian biology inevitably remained mainly in the hands of the amateur, trained in some unrelated field and pursuing biological sfudies as an outLet for his intellectual curiosity. Into this cafegory fitted James F1etcher, trained as an accountant but studylng j-nsects, plants, and then plant diseases, in Ottawa; the schoof teacher John Dearness, studying general natural history, but especially the fungi, at Londonl Reverend C.J.S. Bethune, an outstanding amateur entomologist but without professi-onal training in biology, who became head of the Depantment of Entomology and Zoology af Ontario Agricultural- College, Guelph, as late as 1906; and William Saunders, pharmacist, who was a co-founder with Bethune of the Entomological Society of Canada in 1862, and laten became the founding director of the Experimental- Farms System in Ottawa. Anstey (1986) gives detail-s of the career of Saunders. Thus the ehange to professional biologists in Canadian institutions must apparently be set after 1900 and perhaps closer fo 1910. The first professionally trained biologists in the Department of Agriculture were Fl-etcher's successors, appointed in 1909; C.G. HewiLt' Dominion entomologist, and H.T. Giissow, Domini-on botanist, both trained in Europe. Note, however, that as late as 1911 P.A. Taverner, fralned in architecture, was appointed in charge of ventebrates in the National Museum, and that he beeame a renowned ornithologist. K.H. Ifeatby and gfqrth of systenatics in the department Kenneth W. Neafby (e.S.n. and M.S.A., Saskatchewan) joined the young Rust Researeh Laboratory in Winnipeg in l-926 Lo take change of wheat breeding. This was the start of the professi-onal career of the man who was to infl-uence agricultura1 research in Canada profoundly and who was ultimately to provide a marked stimuLus to systematic blology in the department. For a more general account of Neatbyrs contributions, see Anstey (1986). Neatby left the Rust Laboratory in 1935 to teach at the University of A]bertal and he later became direetor of the Line El-evators Farm Service in Winnipeg, in whieh position he maintained cl-ose contact with research on cereal crops. In 1946 Neatby came to Ottawa as di-rector of the Science Service, Department of Agriculture. His forceful leadership and intense j-ntenests in all reseanch disciplines soon brought wel-come encouragement to al-I researchers, but perhaps especially to the Ottawa-based botanists, enfomologists, and mycologists. After long years of staff and travel restrietions, the expansion program of the late I940s and early I950s was a revelation and a delight. Suddenly we were encouraged, everl urged, to get out and explore our country. Surely few of us had to be urged, but what a stimulus it was to be actively encouraged to undertake relatively -3- unrestricted and broadly based prognams! And how the stimulus paid off in repeated conceptual breakthroughs. Brownrs devefopment of a biol-ogical specj-es concept for his beetl-es, and Cal-derrs and Savilefs reinterpretation of the glaciaL history of the Canadian Cordillera, are two such examples. fn the period mainly from 1948 Lo 1962 many sLaff members happily worked an average of 100 hours a week for most of the summer, and then put in 6O-hour weeks all- winter working up their results. As so often happens under such circumstances, some of the most critical findings were not in ecology and taxonomy for which the field work was mainly planned, but peripherally in' e.B.r biogeography, late glacial history, dispersal, pollination behavior, or species concept. Neatby very soon saw the drawbacks of having workers who were tackling different aspects of the same program placed in two separate directorates: the Science Service and the Experimental- Farms Senvice. Certainly they did cooperate, but all too often it was in spite of the organizatlon rather than because of it. In addition the nomencl-ature of the services lnferred that the workens in unifs of the Experimental Farms Service were nof doing research, which often had a del-eterlous effect on morale. Neatby was a major archi-tect, probably the major arehitect, of the reorganization of these services into fhe Research Branch. He l-ived to see the reorganj-zation accepted but tragically died of a brain tumon j-n November 1958, a few months short of the effective founding date of the Research Branch on 1 April 1959. CHAPTER 2 BotanY Early colLectors of planbs in Canada Some of t,he first specimens cotfected in Canada were gathered by the earty explorers. These were taken back Lo Europe where, sometimes by circuitous routes, they have found their way into nnjor herbaria. Thus coLlections by mernbers of the first Parry expedition (Sabine Edwards, Ross, Parry, Fisher, and Beverley), which wintered on Melvitl'e Island 1n the Canadian Arctlc archipelago, were recorded by Robert Brown in an appendix Lo parry's journal (1824) ano preprinted as Chloris Melvilfiana (1823). This was the finst detalled paper on botany of any part of Arctic America. Specimens are preserved in England. Again, members of Parryrs second (1821-f823) and third (1824-1825) expeditions to Lhe Canadian eastenn ArcLic brought back exLensive plant collectlons to England. These were reporfed upon by W.J. Hooker (1825,1826). Nicholas Pofunin (1940) gave a history of exploration in the eastern Arct ic . Even before these, however, Peter Kalm had collected about Quebec City in f74B (Boivin 1980, Ewan 1969). Hj_s personal herbarium was destroyed, but a seL' which is now preserved in London, was given to Linnaeus, his mentor. AIso Andr6 Michaux came to North America in I7B5 and traveled from Florida to Lake Mistassini and the shores of Hudson Bay (Ewen f969). His collections, which are preserved in Paris, were used as a basis for his Ffora Boreal-i-Americana, published in I803. In the years 1819-1822 and 1825-1827, John Franktin made hls great exploraLion trips through what is now fhe Distrlct of Mackenzie Lo the shoresi of the Arctic Sea. John Richardson, who accompanied him as surgeon-naturalisf, made extensive collections along the routes. Drummond, who accompanied the second expedibion as far as Carlefon House, wenb west to the foothil-Is of the Rocky Mountains. Their specimens, which are preserved in England, formed much of the basis of Hookerfs Flora Boreali-Amerj-cana (1B29-1840).Porsi1dandCody(1980)gaVean@ttre continental NorthwesL Territories thaL incl-uded Richardsonrs travels, as welf as other early coll-ecLors. Not all collections rnade by these early naturalists were the subject of special publlcations. Thus those of Maclagan from southern Quebec and Ontario ended up in the herbarium at Edinburgh. His manuscript on the flora of Canada was never published. McNab, who collected from St. John, N.8., to Goderich' Ont., wrote up only a smal-L part of his collections made along the Rideau Canat. His personal herbarium is now in Dubl-in. Goldie, who col]eeted in southern Ontario, sent three seasonsr specimens back to England. Unfortunately, Lwo of these were apparently lost at sea.