vP. PREFACE. 



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

 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 thuyoides or white cedar, and other evergreens. — 

 Many of our most rare and interesting plants were obtained in 

 this place, as our catalogue bears evidence. 



Staten-Island 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- 

 einity, 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 3 we have not been 

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

 per books relating to this branch of botany. We 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 §. 



LyeEtJM, December 22, 1817. 



