BULLETIN 



OF THE 



Essies: i^tstittjte. 



Vol. 2. Salem, Mass., July, 1870. No. 7. 



One Dollar a Year in Advance. 10 Cents a Single Copy. 



"DARK LANE," WITH ALLUSIONS TO OTHER 

 LOCALITIES OF WILD PLANTS IN SALEM. 



BY GEO. D. PHIPPEN. 



"And lest the reader should too often languish with frustrate de- 

 sire to find some plant he needeth of rare vertue, he spareth not to 

 tell in what wood, pasture, or ditch, the same may be scene and gath- 

 ered." — GiRARD. 



It has been justly noticed that the enthusiasm of the 

 youthful founders of this institution, under its primitive 

 name of the Essex County Natural History Society, found 

 zealous occupation in sustaining its floral exhibitions, held 

 every summer for several years, and at fii'st as often as 

 weekly, at every recurrence of which, one or more 

 stands were devoted exclusively to the exhibition of wild 

 flowers. 



The ease with which at that time, some thirty-five years 

 since, a large collection of native plants could be gath- 

 ered, including many of the rarer sorts, in the short 

 space of an afternoon ramble, and that not necessarily 

 out of the territory of the city, would, we think, some- 

 what surprise a frequenter of the field meetings of the 



Essex Inst. Bulletin. ii 13 



