6 Report of the State Botanist. 



A record of observations on species previously reported, 

 remarks concerning them and descriptions of new or peculiar 

 forms or varieties will be found under D. An inspection of this 

 part of the report will show that more attention than usual has 

 been given to the study of the variations in our flowering plants 

 and that there are many deficiencies in the descriptions of the 

 Manual. The study of these variations and their causes is a most 

 interesting one and is not without its practical value. It is 

 necessary to give us a more complete knowledge of the limits and 

 behavior of species and to enable us to write complete and satis- 

 factory descriptions of them. It is noticeable that most of our 

 cultivated plants are very variable. By cultivation, selection, 

 crossing and close pollination the natural variations have been 

 fixed and even intensified so that we have varieties apparently as 

 distinct as species themselves. Differences in soil, climate, 

 degrees of moisture and prevailing temperature appear to be 

 causes of variation in some cases but these external influences are 

 not suflQcient to explain all cases of variation. For example in 

 a low strip of land lying along the railroad near Narrows- 

 burg, five distinct forms or varieties of the common racemed 

 loosestrife were found. These, so far as could be ascertained, all 

 grew in the same kind of soil and subject to the same external 

 conditions. 



In a single patch of the bland or early wild rose growing near 

 the station at Cooperstown Junction, although the patch was 

 but a few feet in diameter, some of the young shoots have 

 infrastipular spines, but most of them, as usual, were destitute of 

 these spires. What should cause the differences noted in these 

 instances? It is sometimes said that plants have an inherent 

 tendency to vary, but this scarcely enlightens us or gives a satis- 

 factory explanation of the results observed. Even the influence 

 of cross pollination and the action of the laws of heredity do not 

 seem a sufficient or satisfactory explanation in all cases. But 

 whatever the hidden or unknown causes of such variations may 

 be the resulting phenomena are certainly interesting to the 

 student of nature and in the case of useful plants they are not 

 without utility. They indicate a peculiar kind of adaptability in 

 the species to varying conditions of growth and to wider fields 

 of usefulness. 



