A Lrarey 
APR 94 1925 Wknecl 
Line? ART 
EW YORE 
PREFACE. PUT ARICAL 
Tue following enumeration of the plants of 
Hssex County has been prepared, after a careful 
examination of the work of the earlier botanists 
and diligent search in almost every portion of 
the county for species not previously noticed. 
With so few persons devoting themselves to 
the study of botany or the collection of speci- 
mens, particularly of the lower orders of plants, 
it would be impossible to present an absolutely 
complete list, and perhaps with even the greatest 
facilities no one has succeeded in so doing for 
any region. 
Almost the only extended collection of dried 
specimens of county plants were those of the 
late Mr. Oakes, so that there really exists no 
very great foundation upon which to build other 
than the herbarium recently collected, and the 
writings of the more reliable among the earlier 
botanists, who for nearly a century have now 
and then appeared upon the scene. 
Of the plants enumerated, almost all are rep- 
resented in the herbarium of the Peabody Acad- 
(5) 
