REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 1917 31 



and the letter press is now printing. It is hoped to issue this book 

 in two volumes in the course of the current calendar year and in 

 view of its comprehensive character, elaboration and perfection of 

 its plates, it seems well to interpolate here the introductory letter 

 of communication which intimates the influences and causes leading 

 up to the preparation of this monograph. 



The scientific survey of this State, established 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 

 (1843). The species described in this work were entirely of the phenogamous 

 or flowering plants. Until that time no summary of the New York flora had 

 been 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 botanical 

 science has grown widely and apace. The field of cryptogamous 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 botanical investigations of the State were formally terminated 

 by the publication of John Torrey's reports. Not till 1867 did the need of con- 

 tinuous official attention to this department of science meet the recognition 

 of the Regents of the University. In that year Charles Horton Peck was desig- 

 nated to take charge of such botanical collections as had accumulated in the 

 State Museum, and not long thereafter Mr Peck was officially appointed the 

 State Botanist. To the botanical service of the State Mr Peck thereafter dedicated 

 himself without reserve for the rest of his long life. He added much to the store 

 of knowledge of the flowering plants, but the veiled world of the flowerless plants 

 the more invited him and to it he specially gave his labors, leaving behind him 

 a harvest of knowledge of them and a repute for his intricate researches which 

 ranks him high on the roll of great botanists. Doctor Peck spared no effort, 

 however, to increase the store of knowledge of all the flora of the State and he is 

 the creator of the great state herbarium. After fifty years of unstinted devo- 

 tion to his science and to his State, Doctor Peck fell asleep in honor, in the year 

 1917. 



Since the date of Torrey's report, the flowering plants have been the subject 

 of study in all parts of the Commonwealth. Botanical societies and local stu- 

 dents have multiplied; records have grown; the demand for information has 

 greatly increased; but there has been no reliable exposition of such information 

 accessible to these students. 



It has been with this purpose of meeting a wide demand and of setting forth 

 with such excellence as present knowledge and perfected modes of illustration 

 could afford, that the present work, The Wild Flowers of New York, has been 



