Report of the Second Class in the Second Department 

 {Botany). By Charles H. Peck, A.M. 



[Read before the Albany Institute, Jan. 17th, 1871.] 



Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Albany Institute : 



In behalf of the committee of the second class in the 

 second department, I would respectfully submit the fol- 

 lowing report : 



We are not aware that any unusually great or wonderful 

 botanical discovery has been made during the year just 

 ended, nor that any new idea has been advanced which 

 threatens to revolutionize hitherto accepted notions, still 

 there are indications of much activity among botanists and 

 of a gradually increasing interest in this attractive depart- 

 ment of natural history. The limited time at our disposal 

 permits us merely to glance at some of the botanical 

 publications of the year, to allude to one or two interesting 

 practical questions of the day, and to give a simple state- 

 ment of the additions to our own immediate flora. 



Early in the year a new botanical text book appeared 

 under the title of Botanist and Florist. It is from the pen 

 of Prof. A. Wood, long and favorably known to the bota- 

 nists of this country. Its leading characteristic is its happy 

 combination of conciseness and completeness. Repetitions 

 in specific descriptions are carefully avoided, full generic 

 and family characters are given, and excellent synoptical 

 tables of orders, genera and species are freely introduced. 

 The geographical limits of the volume 'include all the 

 United States east of the Mississippi river. In addition to 

 the native or indigenous plants, a large number of garden 



