REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST, 1 898 62 1 



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and lichens as find their favorite abode in cold mountainous regions and 

 alpine situations. The number of species of plants found in this cold, 

 bleak place exceeds 200 of which 75 are seedbearing, though they 

 do not all perfect seed there. The summit maybe regarded as a natural 

 botanic garden full of interesting and mstnictive hardy plants. Several 

 species occur there that have been found nowhere else in the state. 

 Having made several botanical excursions to the top of the mountain, 

 and having been there on different occasions in June, July and August, 

 the months which constitute nearly all the growing season of the place, 

 it has seemed to me desirable to make a record of the plants found there. 

 A list of the species with remarks concerning some of the most interest- 

 ing and important ones and describing the character and conditions of 

 the place is marked F. 



My investigations of the edible mushrooms of the state have been 

 continued. Satisfactory trial has been made of 12 additional species. 

 Colored life-size figures of these have been prepared and placed on five 

 plates of the same size as those previously published. Descriptions of 

 them have been written, uniform in plan with those of the species already 

 published. This descriptive part of the report is designated by the 

 letter G. • 



During September, October and November more packages of mush- 

 rooms of various kinds were received for identification, and for informa- 

 tion concerning their edible qualities, than in any previous corresponding 

 period. Tliese came from distant and widely separated places, and they 

 indicate an extensive and rapidly increasing interest in the subject. 

 Through these and the communications accompanying them it is evident 

 that in some places the general crop of species growing in woods and 

 fields was unusually abundant. In other places there was a great scarcity 

 of them. This difference is due chiefly to differences in climatic and 

 meteoric conditions. The conditions favorable to a large crop appear 

 to have prevailed in most places along the coast from Maine to Virginia, 

 extending inland to central Pennsylvania and some parts of western 

 New York. One correspondent in Pennsylvania reports that he never 

 before saw such a variety and such an abundance of mushrooms. Silting 

 on his piazza he was able to count 52 species in sight at one time. 



Another correspondent writing from Washington, D. C, gives informa- 

 tion of a remarkable crop or succession of crops on an island in the 

 Potomac river. The island is near the city and dredgings from the river 

 had been dumped in low places on it, filling them up and making a soil 

 of great fertility. In due time several species of mushrooms appeared in 



