HOFFMANN: FLORA OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY. 181 
Manual of Botany, followed in 1818 by the much enlarged second edi- 
tion. In this edition is the first description of Lonicera hirsuta, found 
by one of Eaton's pupils " two miles west of the college." This species 
was later found in Vermont, New York, and westward, but in no other 
stations in Massachusetts. Moreover, Eaton's station was lost sight 
of until 1920, over one hundred years after its original discovery, when 
the writer had the pleasure of finding a flourishing colony of plants 
probably in the same locality that Eaton referred to. 
Eaton made occasional references in his Manual to definite localities 
in Berkshire, which represent either his own knowledge of the County 
or information acquired from his pupils or from Dewey. He refers in 
particular to the activity of Dr. E. Emmons, who was his pupil. 
Eaton must have had unusual power to arouse interest and even 
enthusiasm for scientific study. There is a tradition in Williamstown, 
for which I am indebted to Professor S. F. Clarke, that after his lec- 
tures on botany, the loafers in the village taverns when meeting in the 
evening discussed the new flowers that they had found. Eaton was 
not so accomplished a botanist as Dewey, but probably a more inspir- 
ing teacher. 
In 1824 Eaton went to Troy, there to found the Polytechnic School, 
and in 1827 Dewey took charge of a school in Pittsfield. The latter 
still worked at the genus Carex, and doubtless kept up his interest in 
Berkshire plants, but the period of active botanical work on the flora 
of the County carried on by resident botanists was practically o\-cr. 
The collections in the County from that time to the present were made 
by botanists from the centers of scientific activity, chiefly from Boston 
and its vicinity, although a sheet of Thclyptcris Goldiana in the her- 
barium of the Boston Society of Natural History collected in Williams- 
town by Torrey, but bearing no date, testifies to the presence in the 
County of that distinguished botanist. Oakes, also, visited the County, 
probably on the occasion of his trip to western Vermont. Sheets 
from Pittsfield and Williamstown bearing his name as collector are 
in the herbarium of the Boston Society of Natural History. They 
must have been collected prior to 1848, the date of Oakes' death. In 
1858 William Boott was collecting Carex Schirciiiitzii in Williamstown, 
as sheets in the Gray Herbarium testify. J. W. Rol)biiis in 1S(>4 
collected Potamogcto?! (ilpiim.s in Uicluiiond. In 1S77 the nioderu 
period of botanical work in the County may be said to have l)egun, 
inaugurated by the first visit of Judge J. R. Churchill to the County. 
