3 Y Eq, é eg K 
REPORT OF THE BOTANIST. 
Hon. Davip Murray, LL. D., Secretary of the Board of Regents of 
the University : 
Str — Since the date of my last report, specimens of two hundred 
and thirty-nine species of plants have been mounted and placed in 
the Herbarium in the State Museum of Natural History, of which one 
hundred and sixty-seven were not before represented therein. Seventy- 
two species have been represented by better specimens or by the addi- 
tion of specimens of some form or variety not before shown. A list 
of the mounted specimens is marked (1). Specimens have been col- 
lected inthe counties of Albany, Columbia, Dutchess, Essex, Greene, 
Hamilton, Franklin, Rensselaer, Schenectady, Saratoga, Ulster and 
Warren. ‘These represent one hundred and ninety-seven species, of 
which eighty-five are new to the Herbarium and thirty-eight are be- 
lieved to be unpublished. A list of collected specimens is marked (2). 
Specimens of thirteen New York species, new to the Herbarium and 
not among my own collections, have been contributed by correspond- 
ents, or have been obtained in naming specimens for them. These, 
added to the collected species, make the whole number of additions 
new to the Herbarium, ninety-eight species. A list of contributors 
and their contributions is marked (3), Previously unreported species 
will be noticed and descriptions of new species given in a part of the 
report marked (4). New stations of rare plants, remarks upon inteér- 
esting species or varieties, and various observations are recorded in a 
part marked (5). 
The plants designated by the term “fungi, ” are very numerous, 
whether we speak of them as individual plants or as species. In lo- 
calities where they have been most thoroughly collected and investi- 
gated they outnumber in species the larger and far more conspicuous 
flowering plants. They are also extremely varied in their characters 
and habits. All, however, are comparatively small in size, but few 
species ever attaining the length or breadth of asingle foot. If we ex- 
cept the fleshy and speedily perishable sorts which are not generally 
very abundant, we may say that most of the species are too small to 
be readily distinguished by the naked eye. And of no species is it pos- 
sible for the unaided eye to distinguish clearly the shape and features 
of the spores (seeds). Even the entire plant in multitudes of species 
would probably wholly escape observation and detection if they had 
not the habit of growing in masses or patches of many individuals 
closely congregated together, for masses of minute objects become 
visible when the single elements that compose them are invisible. 
They sometimes produce changes also in or on the substances they in- 
habit, which attract attention and lead to their discovery. Such 
changes were known and noticed long before the fungi that produce 
