186 Report oF THE BOTANIST OF THE 
make a longer paper than the Society would be willing to publish 
in its Proceedings. Moreover, much of the matter is of more 
than local interest, making it desirable to publish it where it will 
have a wider circulation than has the Proceedings of the Society. 
Hence the publication of this bulletin. 
THE SURVEY: METHODS AND GENERAL RESULTS. 
TERRITORY COVERED BY THE SURVEY. 
The territory covered by the survey includes only the counties 
bordering upon the Hudson River between Albany and New 
York City; namely, Albany, Rensselaer, Greene, Columbia, Ulster, 
Dutchess, Putnam, Orange, Rockland, and Westchester counties. 
In order that the region investigated might be as nearly as possible 
a natural plant region, and yet cover the greater part of the terri- 
tory included in the membership of the Society, Long Island and 
Staten Island were excluded. The usual climatic conditions pre- 
vailing there are markedly different from those which obtain in 
the Hudson Valley. The district under consideration is about 160 
miles in length and 45 to 50 miles in width with the Hudson River 
running through the middle. (See Plate XIV.) 
WEATHER CONDITIONS. 
It is well known that weather conditions, especially rainfall 
and temperature, exert a powerful influence upon the growth of 
fungi. Fungous diseases of plants are much more destructive 
in wet seasons than in dry ones. In the Hudson Valley, the 
spring and summer of 1899 were unusually dry and the tempera- 
ture somewhat higher than normal, offering a marked contrast to 
the season of 1898, which was very wet. The monthly precipita- 
tion for the season of 1899 is shown in the accompanying table: 
