(D.) 

 FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS 



TOUCHING THE FLORA OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 



COLLECTED, MAINLY, IN 1865. 



BY ONE OF THE REGENTS. 



It is desirable that some one should contribute, annually, to this 

 Report, a paper showing the progress of Botanical discovery in the 

 State, and preparing the way for a perfect Catalogue or Flora of the 

 State. Hoping that some one of more leisure and ability will, next year, 

 undertake that duty, I resume its performance now. 



The inevitable delay which occurs in the printing of the Regents' 

 Reports to the Legislature, would enable me to include observations and 

 facts made and ascertained in the season of 1866; but this is a record of 

 those of 1865, and I prefer, in general, to keep it so. 



Mr. Paine's admirable Catalogue of the Plants of Oneida County and 

 vicinity, which gives its chief grace and value to the last Report, con- 

 tains the results of that gentleman's explorations in 1865, as well as in 

 1864 and previous years. It is to be regretted that he did not place 

 authentic specimens of his discoveries in the State Herbarium; which, 

 so far at least as its Flora is concerned, ought to be its great continent 

 and illustrator. In drawing upon that Catalogue for materials for my 

 Lists, I was, at first, in special cases, in doubt whether I could safely 

 do so. I have concluded, however, to adopt the conclusions of that good 

 botanist, for the purposes of this paper, with the occasional expression 

 of dissent or doubt. 



The following is a list of the plants, so far as known to me, which 

 have been found growing spontaneously in the State, and which are not 

 included in Torrey's Catalogue, nor in the additions thereto furnished 

 in my paper appended to the last or Eighteenth Annual Report on the 

 State Cabinet: 



1. Ranunculus flammula, L. Paine's Cat. p. 55, fide Gray. If I cor- 



rectly understand the distinction between it and var. reptans, 

 it is pretty common on the St. Lawrence. 



2. Ranunculus clintonii, Beck. Mr. Paine considers this a distinct 



species, though Dr. Torrey and Dr. Gray, and botanists ge- 

 nerally, regard it as a form of R. repens. 



