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LETTER OF COMMUNICATION 



New York State Museum 



Jiiiiiiary jo, iQiS 

 The Honorable John II. Fiiiley 



President of the University 

 Sir: 



The scientific survey of this State, established in 1836 under the title 



" The Natural History of New York," embraces in its monumental reports 



two volumes treating of the flora of the State. These volumes, prepared 



~ by the distinguished botanist, John Torrey, bear the inscription: Flora 



of the State of Neiv York; Comprising Full Descriptions of All the Indigenous 



and Naturalized Plants Hitherto Discovered in the State, with Remarks on 



Their Economical and Medical Properties (1843). The species described 



in this work were entirely of the phenogamous or flowering plants. Until 



that time no summary of the New York flora had been brought together; 



and the service rendered to the people of the State by the publication of 



this compendium was of a high order and was received with enthusiastic 



appreciation. Doctor Torrey's books served the needs of the time and 



expressed the state of its knowledge of the New York flora. 



Seventy-five years have passed, and in that long stretch of time botan- 

 ical science has grown widely and apace. The field of cryptogamic botany, 

 that which deals with the flowerless plants, the mushrooms, mosses, lichens 

 and their kind, was not entered in these early reports; it was obscure and 

 little understood; its mostly inconspicuous growths did not attract the 

 eye or invite the observer; nor were its important relations to the economy 

 of the community even suspected. 



The early official botanical investigations of the State were formally 

 terminated by the publication of John Torrey's reports. Not till 1867 did 

 the need of continuous official attention to this department of science meet 



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