Rev. GEORGE BATCHELOR presented a memoir of our 

 late associate, Hon. BENJAMIN F. BROWNE, of Salem. 

 Referred to the publication committee. 



Mr. JOHN ROBINSON read the following paper, illus- 

 trating the same with diagrams and specimens : 



FERNS OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASS. 



ONE of the most important objects of the Essex Insti- 

 tute is the collecting and investigation of Essex County 

 products of every sort. Oakes, Russell, Nichols, Fowler, 

 Putnam, Packard, Hyatt, Tracy and others have each in 

 turn worked at this, and all seem to have agreed in 

 leaving the ferns for some one else to look up. The 

 rocks, insects, fishes, birds, mammals, early inhabitants 

 and Indian remains, flowering plants, mosses, and lichens, 

 have been more or less fully reported upon ; but the ferns, 

 even so abundant and conspicuous as they are, were 

 omitted. Searching the publications of Essex County 

 societies, no notice or list of ferns is to be found ; even 

 Tracy's "Plants of Lynn" stops just upon them. I have 

 for some years been interested in these curious and beau- 

 tiful plants, and have given special notice to those in our 

 .county and have searched myself with friends in the fol- 

 lowing localities, thoroughly or in part: Lynn, Swamp- 

 GX>ti, Saugus, Lynnfield, Danvers, Peabody, Salem, 

 Beverly, Manchester, Essex, Gloucester, Rockport, Ips- 

 wich, Newbury, North Andover, Bradford, Wenham, 

 Topsfiold, Marblehead, Groveland, Middleton, and have 

 had the assistance of Mrs. C. N. S. Homer, of George- 

 town, who kindly gives me the localities for that region, 

 about which I know very little myself. 



Among the older botanists, now gone, who gave ferns 

 some particular notice, was William Oakes, of Ipswich, 

 and judging from looking over the beautifully prepared 



