41 



The vicinity of Danvers is rich in many of our finest native 

 flowers. It was here, that Oakes received his first lessons 

 in that science, which has made his name famous in New- 

 England's Flora. The tall richly laden stalks of the yellow 

 Gerardlce, so abundant in the drier woods, were the subjects of 

 his first herborizations. There they still blossom, year by year, 

 associated with such pleasant memories. The graceful and deli- 

 cately tinted OrcJds Jimbriata (Pursh), grows abundantly in a 

 wet meadow, well known to frequenters of the spot in search of 

 its blossoms ; where also may be found the Trillium cernuum ; 

 the exquisite maiden's hair fern {^Adiantum jpedaivni) nods 

 upon the shady rocks, mixed with the red and the white berried 

 Cohosh (^ActcBa ruhra et alba,) the Vaccinium Vitis Idsea 

 displays its roseate corols and nestles among the short turf be- 

 neath the stunted white-birch bushes contiguous ; and each sea- 

 son, furnishes ample material for the searcher for flowers, from 

 the appearance of the tiny Draba verna, on the middle of 

 March, to the fading foliaged but golden tressed and filamen- 

 tous blossoms of the mysterious witch-hazel bursting into reluc- 

 tant and coyish display, as the frosts of autumn warn us that the 

 year's melancholy days are at hand. 



Previous to the hour of the afternoon's session, a numerous 

 company had met at the Hall of the Ilolten High School House, 

 among which were the pupils of the school, who had been busy 

 in making ready for the occasion. At the hour of 3 o'clock, 

 the Institute was called to order by Rev. John L. Russell, 

 Vice President, and the Records of the proceeding Field Meet- 

 ings and other regular intervening meetings, were read by the 

 Secretary. 



Mr. Samuel P. Fowler suggested a correction of the record 

 of the previous meeting, to the effect that to Judge Parsons 

 belongs the credit of first detecting the Magnolia glauca, in the 

 Gloucester woods ; and that the Rev. Dr. Cutler first brought 

 it into more general notice. 



Letters were announced or read from Pennsylvania Histori- 

 cal Society, D. M. Balch, C. L. Flint, Sec'y. of Massachusetts 

 State Board of Agriculture, Boston Athenaeum, Connecticut 



ESSEX INST. PROCEED. VOL. ii. 6. 



