REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I904 



33 



Bronze medal: marble, D. G. Scholten 



Bronze medal : iron ore, Arnold Mining Co. 



Bronze medal: plaster model, Tilly Foster Iron Mine 



MINERALOGY 



The mineralogist has been concerned with increasing the 

 representative collection of the minerals from the State. Of such 

 material specially notable additions have been received from the 

 cement mines of Rondout. These New York minerals present a 

 series of interesting problems relating to mineral genesis with the 

 study of which the mineralogist has been a good deal engaged. 

 The collection of New York State minerals at present consti- 

 tutes over 600 specimens and contains much material of high 

 scientific interest. 



BOTANY 



The work of the botanic department of the State Museum 

 may be classified as office work and field work. The former is 

 chiefly done during the winter, the late fall and early spring 

 months; the latter during the rest of the year. The first three 

 months of the fiscal year beginning Oct. i and ending Sep. 30 

 were chiefly devoted to the study and examination of the speci- 

 mens of plants collected and contributed during the five months 

 immediately preceding Oct. I, 1903, and in the preparation of 

 the annual report of the botanist for that year. The winter 

 and early spring were devoted to the mounting of specimens, 

 placing some in trays for table case exhibition, others in small 

 pasteboard boxes for better protection against the attacks of 

 insects, and adjusting them to their proper places in the herbarium 

 cases, suitable labels having in all cases been placed with the 

 specimens. Some time w r as given to the examination and de- 

 termination of specimens sent for that purpose by correspond- 

 ents, many of those which had come during the collecting season 

 being- reserved for a more convenient occasion for their examination. 



Field work has been done in 16 counties of the State. The 

 collection of specimens of fungi of the various orders and the in- 

 vestigation of our mushroom flora have been continued as oppor- 

 tunity occurred. The result has been the addition of a few 

 species of edible mushrooms to our already long list of 150 

 species figured on 86 plates. 



Continued and special attention has been given to the study 

 and collection of specimens of our species of Crataegus. Large 



