vi. PREFACE. 



ces, but much remains to be discovered. The cedar swamp, near I 

 New-Durham, is particularly deserving of notice. This is a sphag. 

 nous morass, of about three quarters of a mile in length, and be- 

 tween two and three hundred yards wide, and is entirely overgrown 

 with the cupressvs tknyoides or white cedar, and other evergreens. — I 

 Many of our most rare and interesting plants were obtained in 

 -this place, as our catalogue bears evidence. 



Staten-Islanci has not been often visited, though there is reason 

 to expect much from the peculiar soil which predominates over a 

 Considerable part of it. A great portion of the sea shore has not 

 been explored with that attention which it deserves •, and the pro- 

 ductions of the sea itself have been, as yet, almost entirely neg- 

 lected. 



Perhaps there is no region more interesting to the botanist nor 

 to the geologist than that which surrounds the city of New- York. 

 The four great formations of Werner occur in our immediate vi- 

 cinity, and the soil and situation are greatly diversified. Our prox- 

 imity to the ocean also gives us the advantage of studying those 

 plants which are never found far from the sea shore. 



In the lower orders of the class Crytogamia, we have not been 

 able to do much, owing to the extreme difficulty of obtaining pro- 

 per books relating to this branch of botany. VVc have therefore 

 only inserted such species as are satisfactorily ascertained, reserv- 

 ing the rest until some future time, when it is expected this class 

 will be greatly augmented. 



Those plants which are not properly natives, but have been in- 

 troduced or naturalized among us, are distinguished by this mark 6. 



Lycetfm, December 22, 1817. 



