* 



40 JReport on Botany. 



The increasing interest in botanical maters in this country- 

 is evident to the minds of your committee, from the fact 

 that it is becoming quite common for our various scientific 

 and agricultural periodicals to contain, under the head of 

 " Answers to Correspondents," or some similar caption, 

 lists of names of plants of which specimens had been sent 

 for name and other information. A distinguished mycolo- 

 gist, having offered for sale sets of specimens of fungi, in 

 a few weeks disposes of four series, showing a ready dis- 

 position on the part of botanists to avail themselves of 

 aids in the study of this difficult but most interesting branch 

 of botany. 



The additions that have been made to the floras of dif- 

 ferent countries by the discovery or introduction of species 

 would scarcely be interesting to most members of the In- 

 stitute, even if we had the necessary data for giving the 

 numbers in Retail ; but the additions to our own state 

 flora during the past year ought at least to cause a thrill of 

 joy in the bosom of every loyal son of the Empire State. 

 The Empire State ! appropriate name ! appropriate when 

 we consider her position, her population, her commercial 

 advantages, her wealth, her strength ; how much more ap- 

 propriate when we consider her fostering care of science, 

 her generous aid in the development of her geological and 

 botanical resources. Her manifest desire for the general 

 diffusion of knowledge among her people shows her ap- 

 preciation of the trite maxim, " knowledge is power and 

 power is the basis of empire." 



The number of species added to the flora of the state 

 during the past year is three hundred and seventy-five, of 

 which there are thirteen flowering plants, two mosses, 

 twenty-six lichens and three hundred and thirty-four fungi. 

 Of these, ninety are new or hitherto undescribed species. 

 Among the fungi there are two new genera. Fourteen 

 edible species of fungi have been added to those previously 



