Here we are at the Montr?al Botanical Garden,
in winter 1937

In 1935, Brother Marie-Victorin had finally convinced the city?s mayor to offer Montrealers a vast and splendid botanical garden, which had actually existed on paper since 1931.
When people forget the taxes that Camillien Houde imposed on them, he said, they?ll still remember the magnificent Garden he gave his fellow citizens.

And he was so right! But in the winter of 1937, in a large but not yet very splendid Garden, Brother Marie-Victorin was feeling tired. His health had been fragile ever since he had suffered from tuberculosis as a child. And there was still much to be done: finding more money, teaching, directing research, promoting the cause of science, attending conferences, collecting plants... and replying to the many letters he received from his friend Brother L?on in Cuba, urging him to come explore the fabulous flora there with him!

Cuba still seemed far away to Marie-Victorin, though ? he had no way of knowing that he would be going there the next year. For things were difficult at the Garden. And another world war was threatening.