PREFACE. 



The Act for a Geological Survey of New- York, passed by the Legislature in 1836, makes 

 provision for a full account of the Natural History of the State. Having been appointed 

 to take charge of the Botanical Department of the Survey, I present in these volumes the 

 results of my labors. 



From the following historical sketch, it will be seen, that while much has been done to 

 make known the vegetable productions of the State, this is the first separate work in which 

 all the known plants of New- York have been enumerated and described.* 



The earliest treatise on the Botany of New- York, that has come under my observation, 

 is the " Plantae Coldenhamise" of Governor Golden, published in the Acts of the Royal 

 Society of Upsal for the year 1744. It is an account of the plants growing spontaneously 

 in the neighborhood of Coldenham, in Orange County, and embraces only the first twelve 

 classes of the Linnsean System. The second part was (I believe) never published.! 



Kalm, a pupil of LiNN^us ( and afterwards a Bishop) , visited North America in 1747, 

 and collected plants in New- York, which are often referred to in the writings of Linnaeus, 

 and many of them are preserved in his herbarium. 



Dr. Wangenheim, a Hessian surgeon in the British Army during the American Revolu- 

 tion, made numerous observations on the plants of this country, particularly on those of 

 New-York. After his return to Germany, he published a work on the trees of North 

 America. 



MicHAUx the elder travelled in the northern and southern parts of the State in 1792, 

 while engaged in collecting plants for the French Government, as well as for his Flora 

 Boreali-Americana, which was published in Paris in 1803. He was accompanied by his 

 son, who afterwards revisited this country, and travelled extensively in most of the States 

 east of the Mississippi, and, on returning to Europe, published, in 1810, his splendid work 

 on the Forest Trees of North America. The younger Michaux examined the valley of 

 the Hudson, the borders of Lake Champlain, and a considerable portion of the western 

 counties. 



* Much of this historical matter was furnished for Governor Seward's Introduction to the Natural History of the 

 State. 



t See Dr. Gray's memoir of Golden, in Silliman's Journal. 

 [Flora.] b 



