86 



The Essex Institute has for many years owned 

 the famous " Ship Eocl^ " in Peabody, otherwise this 

 most interesting bowlder, the largest in this region, 

 would long ago have been blasted into foundation 

 stones. This is one of the earlier efforts to preserve 

 a natural object of interest. The fortunate possession 

 of the larger portion of the "Neck" by the city of 

 Salem, has saved for public use one of the few fine 

 rocky headlands, between New York City and East- 

 port, Maine, and near any considerable cities, which 

 the citizens can claim for their own, and from which 

 they cannot be shut off by the fences of private owners, 

 or to which an admission fee cannot be demanded by 

 some money making corporation. 



The white willow of Europe (Salix alba), the tree 

 which has given the name to our but recently ap- 

 preciated marine park, is an illustration of the trees 

 brought to this country at the time of the settlements, 

 which have made themselves so thoroughly at home as 

 to appear to be natives of the region. It is the ordinary 

 willow which we see by roadsides and watery grounds 

 everywhere in the county. We are probably indebted 

 to Mr. Israel "Williams, Selectman and Chairman of 

 the Board of Health at the opening of the century, 

 for the "Willows." Tradition says he originated the 

 plan for planting them as a shade for the patients at 

 the hospital on the point, and a memorandum of the 

 records handed me by his grandson, Mr. T. D. 

 Williams, fixes the date of the planting of these trees 

 with unusual exactness. The Board of Health was 

 established through petition to the General Court in 

 1799. On April 11, 1801, it was voted by this body 

 to set out forty trees. On May 11, of the same 



