The William and Lynda Steere Herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden is the foundation of the Garden's botanical research program. All plant and fungal groups (i.e., algae, cyanobacteria, conifers, ferns, flowering plants, fungi, lichens, liverworts, and mosses) are represented by specimens collected in all parts of the world. The herbarium houses more than 7 million specimens and is the fourth largest in the world and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The collections are augmented regularly by new accessions made by the Garden's staff, by gifts as well as by exchanges of specimens from other herbaria.