I IN" S T I T TJ T IE . 



VOL. 12. SALEM, JULY, AUG., SEPT., 1880. Nos. 7, 8, 9. 

 NOTES ON THE FLORA OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHU- 



SETTS, WITH SKETCHES OF THE EARLY BOTANISTS, 

 AND A LIST OF THE PUBLICATIONS ON THESE SUB- 

 JECTS. 



BY JOHX ROBIXSOX. 



ESSEX County offers to the botanist a field attractive and 

 interesting in many ways. The open country, deep woods, 

 and numerous swamps contain the usual number of species 

 found in such localities, while a large river, the Merrimac, 

 furnishes a valley in which grow many plants not else- 

 where found in the county. There are upwards of fifty 

 ponds, from four to four hundred acres in extent, rich in 

 water plants and subaquatics. Though there is no con- 

 siderable hill or mountainous district, it is sufficiently far 

 north to have several representatives of higher latitudes 

 and even a few alpine and sub-alpine species in the flora. 



Along the seashore is found an abundance of plants 

 peculiar to the region of salt-water marshes and beaches, 

 while in the ocean and inlets grow about one hundred and 



ESSEX INST. BULLETIN. XII 6 (81) 



