OF 



THE EARLY BOTANISTS.* 



The study of botany in Essex County, we may in fact 

 say New England, dates from the time of Dr. Manasseh 

 Cutler at the close of the last century. Previously the 

 plants had only been noticed by writers upon more gen- 

 eral subjects of natural history, or casually mentioned in 

 letters written from this country to England. But from 

 Cutler's time there has been a steady succession of bot- 

 anists, chiefly amateurs, who have kept alive an interest in 

 the subject, even at times making it the prominent topic 

 considered at the literary and scientific societies and clubs 

 of the region. It will onh"^ be attempted here to give a 

 brief sketch of the older botanists who have contributed 

 most to the knowledge of the subject in the county. 



Francis Higginson, in a letter written from Salem in 

 1629-30 (Mass. Hist. Coll., I, 121), speaks of the plants 

 which he had noticed growing in the vicinity, and men- 

 tions several species which probably now exist in the same 

 localities as observed by him at that early date ; one, the 

 JRubus odoratus (Flowering Raspberry or Mulberry) still 

 flourishes in the "Great Pastures," and the Osmorrhiza 

 longistylis (Chervil or Sweet Cicely) has been noticed 

 until very recently at "Paradise," near Salem. 



William Wood, in the New England Prospect, speaks 



* The writer is indebted to Dr. Henry Wheatland for his assistance in obtaining 

 notices of the early botanists of the county, chiefly from the Proceedings and 

 Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, from which a large portion of this 

 sketch is made. 



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