LETTER OF COMMUNICATION 



Neiv York State Museum 

 Jiuiiiary jo, icjiS 

 The Ilouorahle John II. Fiiiley 



President of the University 

 Sir: 



The scientific svtrvey of this State, estabUshed in 1836 under the title 



" The Natural History of New York," embraces in its monumental reports 

 two volumes treating of the flora of the State. These volumes, prepared 

 by the distinguished botanist, John Torrey, bear the inscription: Flora 

 of the State of New York; Comprising Full Descriptions of All the Indigenous 

 and Naturalized Plants Hitherto Discovered in the State, with Remarks on 

 Their Economical and Medical Properties (1S43). The species described 

 in this work were entirely of the phcnogamous or flowering plants. Until 

 that time no summary of the New York flora had laeen brought together; 

 and the service rendered to the people of the State by the publication of 

 this compendium was of a high order and was received with enthusiastic 

 appreciation. Doctor Torrey's books served the needs of the time and 

 expressed the state of its knowledge of the New York flora. 



Seventy-five years have passed, and in that long stretch of time botan- 

 ical science has grown widely and apace. The field of cryptogamic botany, 

 that which deals with the flowerless plants, the mushrooms, mosses, lichens 

 and their kind, was not entered in these early reports; it was obscure and 

 little understood; its mostly inconspicuous growths did not attract the 

 eye or invite the observer; nor were its important relations to the economy 

 of the community even suspected. 



The early official l)otanical in\-estigations of the State were formally 

 terminated by the publication of John Torrey's reports. Not till 1867 did 

 the need of continuous official attention to this department of science meet 



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