28 TWENTY-THIRD REPORT ON THE STATE CABINET. 
In consequence of the great changes in color and shape that 
most of the fleshy putrescent fungi undergo in drying, it has 
been thought best to make colored drawings of them while in 
the fresh state. The number of species and varieties thus illus- 
trated is two hundred and fifteen. These illustrations will be 
placed on the species sheets with the dried specimens, and will 
with the spores, which have been saved from nearly all the 
species, give a very fair exhibition of the scientific characters of 
the plant. Selections might be made from these illustrations for 
publication if deemed desirable. 
Descriptions have also been written of most of these fungi 
while in the fresh state. This was thought best, because of the 
large number of new species, and the difficulty in getting de- 
scriptions of such as may have already been described. It is to 
be hoped that these descriptions will greatly aid those who may 
desire to study these singular but really useful and interesting 
plants. Artificial synopses of the species have been introduced 
to facilitate their study. 
Believing that it would be of interest to many to know what 
plants grow on the bleak and exposed summit of Mt. Marcy, 
the most elevated land in the State, a list of such as have been 
seen by myself on that almost alpine spot has been made. It 
is marked (4). The distribution of these plants in their several 
classes and orders is thus: Flowering plants, fifty ; Club 
Mosses, three; Mosses, thirty-two; Liverworts, ten ; Lichens, 
twenty-three ; Fungi, two species. The whole number is one 
hundred and twenty species. Among the flowering plants there 
are three trees, but they are mere shrubs in size, and not nu- 
merous. They are the balsam (Adées balsamea), the mountain ash 
(Pyrus Americana) and the paper birch (Betula papyracea). 
The first one, in sunken places, attains the height of two or 
three feet and bears cones. There are eleven shrubs, five sedges 
and seven grasses ; of the latter, two are now first reported as 
belonging to our flora. The number of marsh plants growing 
at this high altitude is remarkable. Cassandra calyculata, 
Kalmia glauca, Ledum latifolium, Veratrum viride, Habena- 
ria dilatata, Sphagnum cymbifolium, and 8S. acutifolium are 
examples. The necessary conditions for the growth of marsh 
plants are afforded by the clouds and fogs that so frequently 
envelop the top of the mountain. 
The number of species represented by specimens contributed 
by botanists, is four hundred and thirty-eight ; of these, how- 
ever, only one hundred and forty-six are from this State. Of 
