
Sia eer. OS SOM es 
OF 
maa GARILGY BOTANISTS.* 
Tue 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 only be attempted here to givea 
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 
fiubus 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. ; 
(19) 
