PREFACE. 



"A Catalogue of tlie Plants found in New Bedford and its A^icinity," 

 prepared by the present writer, was puhlislied in the year 1860. 



In the lapse of thirty years many important changes have been 

 made in the nomenclature of plants, occasioned in part by the ad- 

 vances made in botanical science, and })artly l)y a recent determination 

 to ado})t as far as possible tlie oldest specific names known to bot- 

 anists, at least as far back as the time of Linna-us, in preference to 

 more recent ones which have, inadvertently perhaps, been given to 

 the same })lant. 



These changes in some instances are so complete that in the absence 

 of synonymes one would fail to recognize the }jlant 1iy its present 

 name. The object of this work is to correct the nomenchiture of the 

 earlier Catalogue, to supply omissions, and to make additions to the 

 list of such plants as have been brought to my attention up to the 

 present time, in accordance with the sixth edition of Gray's Manual 

 of the Botany of the Northern United States. 



The arrangement of "A Procession of the FU)wers," as in the for- 

 mer edition, though unique, has its advantages : 



One is enabled to see at a ghince what plants are coming into flower 

 in each month and each part of the month, and a comparison with 

 other catalogues where the dates of flowering have been kept is more 

 easily made. 



Such a comparison with "A List of Plants collected in the vicinity 

 of Oquawka, 111., by Harry N. Patterson," in 1874, in which the 

 dates of flowering of three successive years are partially given, dis- 



