REPORT OF THE BOTANIST. 
3/ Rtg ey: y: 
8S. B. WootwortaH, LL. D., 
Secretary of the Board of Regents of the University : ae 
__ Srr—Since the date of my last report, specimens of one hundred nnd eighty a8 
nine species\of plants have been mounted and placed in the Herbarium of the % 
State Museum of Natural History, of which one hundred and sixty-two were no 
before represented therein. Twenty-seven are improved specimens or ney 
varieties not before represented. A list of the specimens mounted is marked (I 
_ Specimens have been collected in the counties of Albany, Columbia, De 
ware, Essex, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schoharie and Ulster. ‘I'hese represent one 
hundred and twenty-seven species new to the Herbarium, fifty- -eight. of which ; 
are believed to be new or hitherto undescribed. A list of the specimens — 0. 
lected i is marked (2). 
Specimens of twenty New York species, new to the Herbarium, and : 
among my collections of the past season, have been contributed by, or be 
obtained in naming specimens for, correspondents. These added to the collecte 
species make the whole number of additions one hundred and forty-seven spon 
A list of contributors and their contributions is marked (3). 
_ Previously unreported species and descriptions of new species are given in 
part of the report marked (4). New stations of rare plants, remarks and obser- 
vations will be found in a part marked (5). A few discoveries of special | inter Oy 
est are herewith narrated. z 
_* It is a well-known fact that various insects are subject to the attacks of pai ars 
 sitic fungi, which prove fatal to them. The common house-fly is destroyed by 
one, the silk-worm by another, and the pupz of different moths by others. — eae 
; Another noticeable instance of this kind was observed the past season. It 
-_ was found that the ““Seventeen-year Locust,” Cicada septendecim, which made 
5 - its appearance in the Hudson River Valley early in the summer, was affected 
F by afungus. The first specimen of this kind that I saw was taken in NewJer- 
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sey, and sent to me by Rev. R. B. Post. Examination revealed the fact thai 
: the Cicadas, or “‘Seventeen-year Locusts,”’ in this vicinity, were also affected 
by it. The fungus develops itself in the abdomen of the insect, and cone 
Fi almost wholly of a mass of pale-yellowish or clay-colored spores, which, to the — 
naked eye, has the appearance of a lump of whitish clay. The insects attacked — : 
j by it become sluggish and averse to flight, so that they can easily be taken by 
hand. After a time some of the posterior rings of the abdomen fall aw 
f revealing the fungus within. Strange as it may seem, the insect may, and 
sometimes does live for a time even in this condition. ‘hough it is not killec 
% at once, it is manifestly incapacitated for pr opagation, and, therefore, the fungu: 
a may be said to prevent, to some extent, the injury that would otherwise be don 
to the trees by these insects in the deposition of their eggs. or the same rea 
son, the insects of the next generation must be less numerous than they other- 
- wise would be, so that the fungus may be regarded as a beneficial one. In 
ae Columbia county, the disease prevailed to a considerable extent. Along the 
a Tine of the railroad between Catskill and Livingston stations many dead ee 
