LETTER FROM JOHN TORREY, M. D. 
TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR SEWARD. 
Sir, 
i herewith present a brief report of my labors as Botanist, under the 
Act for a Geological Survey of the State. In November last, I made 
a report in person to your predecessor; and therefore supposed, that 
from the peculiar nature of my duties, I should not be called upon for a 
written statement of my observations and researches until the survey was 
brought to a close. At your direction, however, I send you an account 
of the present state of my department, as far as I am prepared to report. 
When I received my commission as Botanist, no specific duties were 
assigned to me, except to make a thorough examination of the vegetable 
productions of the State, and to collect seven full sets of each species; 
preserving them in such a manner as to exhibit as nearly as possible the 
botanical characters of the plants, and to arrange and name the whole as 
standard collections for reference. This work I have in a great degree 
accomplished. A large portion of the State has been pretty well ex¬ 
plored, and many valuable observations made on our indigenous plants. 
A great number of excellent specimens have been preserved, and most 
of them have been arranged and named. The set for the State Collec¬ 
tion, to be deposited in the Capitol, is to be put up in bound volumes 
like the specimen herewith submitted, except that the labels and title- 
pages are to be printed. About 60 such volumes will be required for 
one set of the plants. When the Herbarium is completed, it will be so 
arranged that any plant contained in it may be found with the greatest 
facility. 
The number of species and varieties already ascertained as belonging 
to the Flora of the State, exceeds 2,300. Of these, 277 are trees or 
shrubs; 200 are medicinal plants, or are reputed to possess medicinal 
virtues; 250 are ornamental herbaceous species; about 125 have been 
