REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST 
79 
taining them. Another step has therefore been taken in the present 
report in pursuance of this plan by the collation of the descriptions of 
our species of the genus Flammula. This part of the report is 
marked E. 
There is a constantly and rapidly increasing demand for such a 
descriptive manual as these and the remaining contemplated generic 
monographs would make if brought together in one volume. Such 
a volume, especially if each genus could be illustrated by a colored 
figure of some prominent or type species, would add greatly to the 
general interest in this branch of mycology and would give to its 
study a strong forward impulse. The demand for this kind of liter¬ 
ature seems to increase more rapidly than its supply. Earnest wishes 
that such a work might soon be available have repeatedly been made 
known to me, and I have sometimes been surprised at the indications 
of a great and widespread interest in this lowly and apparently unat¬ 
tractive class of plants. The fact that these plants exhibit an intelli¬ 
gent design in their structure and are just as capable of systematic 
arrangement and classification as the higher orders of plants doubt¬ 
less has much to do in arousing an interest in them, but probably the 
great promise they give of affording a useful reward for their study 
in the form of a desirable article of food has also something to do 
with it. The numerous and earnest applications in advance of its 
publication for copies of the forthcoming Forty-eighth Report, which 
contains an illustrated and descriptive account of our edible and 
poisonous fungi, are indications of this. 
The past season has been unusually productive of certain crops. 
Wild plants have in some instances vied with cultivated ones in show¬ 
ing what large crops of fruit they could produce. The choke cherry 
shrubs of the Adirondack region have been as heavily loaded in pro¬ 
portion to their size as the apple trees of our orchards. Their 
