PREFACE. 



A Catalogue of the Phasnogamous and Filicoid plants 

 of New Castle County was published by the Wilmington 

 Botanical Society in 1844. Since that time, such changes 

 have taken place in nomenclature and in the arrangement 

 of natural orders and genera, as to render that Catalogue 

 unsuited to the present state of botanical science. To this 

 may be added, as of no less importance to our own ob- 

 servers, that a considerable number of plants previously 

 undiscovered in the county, have recently been found grow- 

 ing within its limits. 



The present Catalogue is published by the Wilmington 

 Institute, a body incorporated in the year 1859 for literary 

 and scientific purposes, and with which the Wilmington 

 Botanical Society and the Delaware Academy of Natural 

 Sciences have become united. 



In the preparation of the Catalogue, the aim has been to 

 record only such indigenous and naturalized plants as have 

 been found in the county, together with a few whose prox- 

 imity in the surrounding counties rendered their insertion 

 proper. These are designated by a mark of interrogation (?) 

 preceding the name of the species. Localities and the 

 time of flowering are given, as also good common names 

 whenever they could be found. The advantage of these 

 particulars to our local botanists will be obvious. 



