REPORT 
Of Dr. John Torrey on the Botanical Department of 
the Survey, 
To His Excellency Wm. L. Marcy, 
Governor of the State of JV eu;- York, 
Sir, 
Your commission appointing me "Botanist," under the Act 
to provide for a Geological Survey." of the State of New-York, 
and committing to me the botanical department of that work, was 
dated July 1st, 1836. Soon after it was received I made the ne- 
cessary preparations for executing the duties assigned to me. A 
considerable portion of the State has already been explored, and 
extensive collections have been made of its vegetable productions. 
Your commission does not specify minutely the objects to which 
my attention is to be directed while I am employed on this service, 
but I understand them to comprehend the following heads: 
1. To examine and prepare a catalogue of all the indigenous 
plants of the State, as well as of the more important cultivated 
species. 
2. To preserve a complete set of specimens of all the plants 
found in the S^tate, and arrange them in a convenient herbarium, 
so that any species can be referred to without difficulty. 
3. To collect and preserve specimens of all the woods, fruits,- 
roots and other useful or otherwise interesting vegetable produc- 
tions, the growth of this state, and arrange them in a cabinet. 
4. To cause drawings to be made of the more important plants, 
for the purpose of having ihem engraved, if necessary, when the 
final report is published. 
"Assem. No. IGl.] 
3 
