INTRODUCTORY. 



Essex County offers to the botanist a field attractive and 

 interesting in many ways. The open country, deep woods, 

 and numerous swamps contain the usual number of species 

 found in such localities, while a large river, the Merr'mac, 

 furnishes a valley in which grow many jjlants not else- 

 where found in the county. There are upwards of fifty 

 ponds, from four to four hundred acres in extent, rich in 

 water plants and subaquatics. Though there is no con- 

 siderable hill or mountainous district, it is sufiiciently far 

 north to have several representatives of higher latitudes 

 and even a few alpine and sub-alpine species in the flora. 



Along the seashore is found an abundance of plants 

 peculiar to the region of salt-water marshes and beaches, 

 while in the ocean and inlets grow about one hundred and 

 fifty species of alg». These last named collecting grounds 

 offer an opportunity to study, from fresh specimens, classes 

 of plants from which the inland botanist is almost wholly 

 debarred. 



The land plants of the county belong decidedly to the 

 northern flora although not so arctic in their character as 

 the lichens and algse. There is an almost total absence 

 of many species common from Cape Cod southward and 

 often found just south of Boston. In contrast to this 

 the Magnolia glauca is still quite abundant at Glou- 

 cester, but not found again north of New Jersey. At 



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