REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF a.GKiCULTURE. 13 



New York State, who in that State alone gathered specimens of no less 

 than eighty species of mushrooms, including several new to science. 

 No large collection of well-executed drawings of cryptogamic fungi has 

 heretofore existed in this country, but the Microscopist has supplied the 

 defect in an admirable manner, and has formed a collection which will 

 be of permanent value to mycological science. The drawings, nearly all 

 of which were made from nature, for the special purpose for which 

 they are now used, exhibit a high degree of delicacy and finish. 



The work of the Botanical Division of the Department has been stead- 

 ily prosecuted. Many inquiries have been received from different sec- 

 tions of the country for information respecting the name, properties, and 

 uses of plants which claimed attention either as weeds and pests or as 

 deserving cultivation for agricultural or economic properties. These 

 inquiries have been answered. 



Some additions to the herbarium have been received from the survey 

 of Lieut. George M. Wheeler; also a package, through the Smithsonian 

 Institution, from Mr. Karl Keck, of Austria. 



Much work has been performed in completing the collection of woods 

 of the United States for the Centennial Exposition, and by this means 

 large quantities of duplicates have been obtained with which to enrich 

 the herbarium and to exchange with foreign governments and scien- 

 tific societies. The collections from which the greatest material has 

 been obtained are those of Mr, L. F. Ward, from Utah; Mr. G. E. 

 Vasey, from California; Dr. Edwin Palmer, from Arizona and Southern 

 California; Mr. J. G. Lemmon, from the Sierra Nevada Mountains ; Mr. 

 A. H. Curtiss, from the Southern Atlantic States; and Mr. John Wolfe, 

 from the Western States. Several sets of duplicate specimens of the 

 woods of the centennial collection have been i^repared, and may be dis- 

 posed of to institutions where they may be of benefit, and where they 

 may be consulted for purposes of study and information, and for foreign 

 exchanges. Among the collections thus obtained are many specimens 

 of cones, fruits, and seeds, which will be of great interest. 



The accompanying tabular statement exhibits the quantity and kind of 

 seed issued from the Seed Division of the Department. A mere cursory 

 examination of this table conveys but a faint idea of the value of this 

 division of the Department. But when we consider the value of these 

 seeds, collected from all parts of the world, selected because of their 

 peculiar excellence, and put into the hands of thousands of individuals, 

 who make them the germs from which is to grow a quantity of product 

 that is to cnaracterize the future operations of the farmer and gardener ; 

 when we consider how difficult it is for settlers upon the wild lands of 

 the West, who have expended perhaps their last dollar in reaching the 

 spot from whose fertility they hope to live, to get even the poorest of 

 seed, (and this Department will put into their hands that which is choice 

 and excellent,) we may readily imagine that thus seed is " sown in good 

 ground, and will bring forth an hundred-fold.'^ 



