6 [Assembly 



use. The standing Committee of the Regents on the Cabinet, 

 on the recommendation of Dr. Torrey, employed Mr. C. J. Aus- 

 tin to examine the Herbarium critically, and to report its defi- 

 ciencies by a Catalogue exhibiting them. Mr. Austin seems to 

 have been thorough in his examination, and the list of deficien- 

 cies appended to the circular in the appendix, was drawn mainly 

 from a full Catalogue prepared by him. It exhibits with 

 precision the deficiencies of the Herbarium in respect to the 

 plants known to be of the State in 1853, and in respect to sub- 

 sequently discovered ones ; and points out others which there is 

 reason to believe exist within the State, though they have not 

 yet been found. Where a specimen in the Herbarium is so poor 

 that it ought to be replaced, the species is included in the list 

 of deficiencies. 



The Cabinet is more or less incomplete in other departments. 

 Lists of the deficiencies in some of these departments, are ap- 

 pended to the circular, and measures are in contemplation to as- 

 certain the precise condition of the Cabinet as an exponent of 

 the Natural History of the State in all its branches. 



The Cabinet is an honor to the State — affords instructive 

 pleasure to the people, and is a standing aid to science. To 

 perfect and make it more eminently useful, the attention of the 

 Naturalists of the State should be attracted to it, and their free 

 aid invoked. That their co-operation can be easily secured, we 

 do not doubt. Indeed the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 

 has volunteered its aid, and we have assurances of active co-ope- 

 ration from Naturalists in various portions of the State. Enter- 

 taining these views, the Regents have caused the annexed circu- 

 lar to be prepared, and have appended thereto the lists of defi- 

 ciencies above referred to, intending to diffuse it among the 

 Naturalists of the State, and send it to the officers of every 

 College, and to the Principal of every Academy, subject to their 

 visitation. 



We also transmit herewith a preliminary list of the Plants of 

 Buffalo and its vicinity. 



The Regents propose also, after due inquiry, to initiate more 



effective measures for the formation of a collection expressive of 



the economical geology of the State. 



JOHN V. L. PRUYN, 



Chancellor of the University. 

 Albany, March 24, 1864. 



