  We study how chemical abundances of late B-, A- and early F-type stars evolve
with time, and we search for correlations between the abundance of chemical
elements and other stellar parameters, such as effective temperature and Vsini.
We have observed a large number of B-, A- and F-type stars belonging to open
clusters of different ages. In this paper we concentrate on the Praesepe
cluster (log t = 8.85), for which we have obtained high resolution, high
signal-to-noise ratio spectra of sixteen normal A- and F-type stars and one Am
star, using the SOPHIE spectrograph of the Observatoire de Haute-Provence. For
all the observed stars, we have derived fundamental parameters and chemical
abundances. In addition, we discuss another eight Am stars belonging to the
same cluster, for which the abundance analysis had been presented in a previous
paper. We find a strong correlation between peculiarity of Am stars and Vsini.
The abundance of the elements underabundant in Am stars increases with Vsini,
while it decreases for the overabundant elements. Chemical abundances of
various elements appear correlated with the iron abundance.
