50 THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 



render this day one to be long remembered by all who 

 were present on this interesting occasion. 3 



Third meeting at Magnolia, on Wednesday, August 9, 

 1882. This place has been, for a long time, a favorite sea- 

 side resort. The old road was a pleasant drive, bordered 

 with the wild rose and other flowering plants, with occa- 

 sional hamlets, whose occupants obtained their livelihood 

 from the land or the briny deep, winding through these 

 fragrant woods and skirting the borders of the green fields 

 that come down even to the beaches that are hard and 

 smooth, and to the rocks whose hoary cliff's extend into the 

 sea, scarred, wrinkled, and worn. 



This territory, especially that portion contiguous to the 

 coast, has for the most part, within the past few years, 

 been bought by the wealthy denizens of the city who 

 make this their summer home. The elegant villas, re- 

 cently built, with their quaint architecture dot the coast, 

 and with their red roofs are in striking contrast with the 

 sombre green of the woods. The name of this locality 

 has also, recently, been changed, and instead of Kettle 

 Cove we have Magnolia, appropriately named from the 

 beautiful flower, whose northern habitat is in close prox- 

 imity. These woods extending inland from the coast, 

 diversified with ponds and inlets, rocky hills and meadows, 

 the habitat of many rare plants, have been made famous 

 by the herborizations of William Oakes of Ipswich, a very 

 distinguished botanist, who died in 1848, leaving an ex- 

 tensive collection of beautifully prepared specimens of our 

 native flora with many valuable notes and observations. 

 Peter Magnol of Montpellier, France, a very distinguished 

 botanist during the close of the seventeenth and the early 

 part of the eighteenth centuries, in whose honor the name 



* See Hist. Coll. Essex lost., vol. XIX. 



