PKEFACE. 



The following enumeration of the plants of 

 Essex County has been prepared, after a careful 

 examination of the work of the earlier botanists 

 and diligent search in almost every portion of 

 the county for species not previously noticed. 



With so few persons devoting themselves to 

 the study of botany or the collection of speci- 

 mens, particularly of the lower orders of plants, 

 it would be impossible to present an absolutely 

 complete list, and perhaps with even the greatest 

 facilities no one has succeeded in so doing for 

 any region. 



Almost the only extended collection of dried 

 specimens of county plants were those of the 

 late Mr. Oakes, so that there really exists no 

 very great foundation upon which to build other 

 than the herbarium recently collected, and the 

 writings of the more reliable among the earlier 

 botanists, who for nearly a century have now 

 and then appeared upon the scene. 



Of the plants enumerated, almost all are rep- 

 resented in the herbarium of the Peabody Acad- 



(5) 



