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 sjDores, 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, 



Descrijjtions 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 {Ahies halsamea)., the mountain ash 

 {Pyrus Americana) and the paper birch {Betuia j^a'pyracea). 

 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 calycvlata, 

 Kalmia glauca., Ledum latifolium, Veratrum mride, Habena- 

 ria dilatata, Sjyhagnum cymbifolium, and 8. acutifolium are 

 examples. The necessary conditions for the growth of marsh 

 plants are aff'orded 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 



