246 On the Study of JVatural History. 



and in the humble capacity of curator delighted and instructed 

 the iDorld with the rich variety of his scientific research. 

 Within its inclosiires are lowly but sweet flowers of native 

 growth, the offerings of humbler names, culled by enthusiastic 

 zeal from the wide-apart portions of our country. In woods 

 and by ponds, in sandy tracts and often trod bye-ways, the 

 indefatigable zeal of other and younger botanists have discov- 

 ered rarer species, escaping the eye of those who have pre- 

 ceded them; while the name of one now absent in Europe, 

 and revelling amidst the richest treasures of herbaria from 

 every clime, bears high testimony to the exuberance of fruitful 

 subjects of research in the curious and mystic department of 

 cryptogamic botany. To the ancient town of Ipswich, as early 

 as 1785, A. D., the first volume of the American Academy 

 is indebted for a paper on the indigenous plants of the vicinity, 

 with no other guide to determine our flora than the few foreign 

 works then scarce in this country; and where in the annals of 

 botanical science, and of eletrant preparation of dried speci- 

 mens, is the name of Oakes unknown? If we inquire for the 

 useful and learned in our days, for the promoters of our own 

 science in other departments of natural history, we have only 

 to refer to the college catalogue to find the names of members of 

 several scientific societies in our vicinity. To such, especially, 

 is the natural history of this State, lately published, indebted, its 

 treasures revealed, unknown before, its science made precise. 

 The depths of the ocean, the surf washed shores, the stilly 

 lake, and the babblina; brook, have been made subservient to 

 the searching skil] of exploration; the mollusca of stationary 

 habits, and the finny wanderers of ocean's stream, have re- 

 ceived their allotted place and position in scientific arrange- 

 ment. Into the secrets of departments of science, hitherto 

 considered difficult, we have been introduced, and the minuter 

 things of nature have been made to minister to our instruction 

 and delight. Still further investigations into, and revelations 

 of, the wonders of vegetable organography, and of precise bo- 

 tanical arrangement, we may expect in the lately appointed 

 Professor of Natural History, Dr. Gray. 



"The question often occurs to those unacquainted with the 

 extensive nature of our studies, what is there now to be inves- 

 tigated, what new thing to be discovered? A cursory exami- 

 nation of the several excellent reports to which I have already 

 alluded, would be sufficient to answer this inquiry. Scarcely 



