IX 



Mr. Peck and Mr. Ellis has been referred to. Valuable assistance 

 was received from Mr. Olney's Algca RJiodiacct, to which reference 

 is duly made by No. in the text, and wherever the names have 

 been reformed, the species as named in Ahj. Ehod. follows the 

 now accepted name in italics. Very valuable information regard- 

 ing a large number of Diatoms was obtained from Mr. S. A. 

 Briggs' papers in The Lens. 



A great amount of material in Besmids, Diatoms, &c., await 

 determination, and all our fresh water pools, and ponds, and 

 brooks, teem with species yet to us unknown. 



It has been the intention to insert the names of all plants so far 

 found indigenous to the State, and also all those not native, but 

 which have becom.e tlioroughly naturalized; the names of all 

 plants which did not appear to be perfectly established, are omit- 

 ted ; unquestionably there are some which deserve insertion, and 

 further study will allow their claim, but " consuetudo loci obser- 

 vando est," and it has been thought better to practice that con- 

 servatism which has heretofore characterized Rhode Island's 

 treatment of aliens, and make them fully earn citizenship before 

 allowing it. Naturalized plants are designated in the text by the 

 method of spacing commonly adopted. 



Wherever the habitat is general it is not mentioned, but when 

 the plant has been found only locally, such fact is noted; when a 

 species has been noted by only one collector, such fact is stated, 

 save that in a few cases the note refers to the person by whom it 

 was first found ; the other notes will explain themselves. These 

 remarks do not apply to the Cryptogamia, as the marine algae 

 were worked out first by Mr. Olney, and the other orders mainly 

 by the writer. 



Although this enumeration contains the names of upwards of 

 3,150 species and varieties, yet it is probably only the moiety of 



