FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 MOSES ASHLEY CURTIS 
 
 1808-1872 
 
 PRESENTED TO 
 
 THE UBRARY OF THE 
 
 JNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROUNA 
 
 BY HIS GRANDCHILDREN 
 
 CB 
 
 C979W 
 
UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 00032195259 
 
 This book must i 
 be taken from t 
 Library building. 
 
SKiEorcia: 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BOTANICAL WORK 
 
 OF THE 
 
 
 e^ S* ^ntikf 
 
 A. M., D. D., F. A, A. S. 
 
 BY 
 
 TT3:01sa:J^& IF.. S^CDOJD, 
 
'K . a . € v^vt:^ 
 
sicEa?oi3: 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BOTANICAL WORK 
 
 OF THE 
 
 tv. ^o^t$ Jt. CJuilb, 
 
 A. M., D. D., F. A. A. S, 
 
 BY 
 
 RALEIGH : 
 
 EDWARDS, BROUGHTON & CO., POWER PRINTERS AND BINDERS. 
 
 1885. 
 

 [Extract from Journal of Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society.] 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BOTANICAL WORK OF THE Rev. MOSES ASHLEY 
 
 CURTIS, D. D. 
 
 Read before the Mitchell Society at the University of North 
 Carolina, May 22D, 1885. 
 
 B^r THZOnyC^A-S IF- ^WOOID. 
 
 In the early days of this century botany was the science of great 
 expectations in America. The florid narratives of the old chroni- 
 clers were being displaced by a generation of scientific men, whose 
 zeal and earnestness fitted them for the vast work of the exploration 
 and study of the flora of a new continent. 
 
 From the very beginning in this country, the science of botany 
 was an aristocracy of learning, except in the matter of lineal trans- 
 mission, and even in this direction we have two illustrious examples 
 in the case of the Bartrams and Michaux. The pioneer teachers 
 were admitted authority in their broad domain, and received the 
 encouragement and patronage of the mother country in our colonial 
 state, and the sympathy and respectful admiration of the people 
 when we became federated States. This was a very natural state 
 of things, for although the science of botany was so well cultivated 
 that it became a matter of national pride, still the real botanists 
 were very few. 
 .^ As we look through the superb volumes which remain the perma^ 
 ;^ nentmonumentsof the work of these men, we find a striking repetition 
 Q^ of a very few names referred to as authority, but these men were 
 ^ able, industrious, and with v^ery few exceptions, men of marked lon- 
 r;^ gevity, having the capacity of exciting enthusiasm among the young 
 c men who attended their instruction. It was not until the century 
 Oi was nearly twenty years old that botanical works began to multiply 
 ^ in such numbers as to be of use to the student; so at the time Dr. 
 
lO JOURNAL OF THE 
 
 Curtis entered upon the study of botany, the science had already 
 enlisted the men who were to give it the permanent impress of their 
 rare ability. I propose now to pass in review the botanical career 
 of the Rev. Dr. Curtis, rather than attempt a general biography. 
 
 Moses Ashley Curtis was born in Stockbridge, Berkshire county, 
 Mass., May 11th, 180S. His mother was the daughter of Gen. Moses 
 Ashley. He graduated at Williams College, September, 1827. 
 
 Mr. Curtis came to Wilmington in October, 1830, as a tutor in the 
 family of Governor Dudley. He devoted himself in all of his leisure 
 hours to the study of the flora of that region. Especially on Satur- 
 days he made excursions among the sand hills and savannahs near 
 Wilmington. At that time (1831) Wilmington was a village of about 
 4,000 inhabitants, and the field for botanizing existed where now are 
 busy streets. Close up to the village reached the pine forests abound- 
 ing with a flora rich and novel to the enthusiastic young botanist, 
 while the savannahs, with their strange and interesting Sanacenia 
 and Pixidanthera, and Droseras, and the thousands of gaudy heads 
 of Liatris, and the brilliant yellows of Coreopsis and Solidago, 
 charmed the eye and filled his portfolios. 
 
 A flora so vast as that of America was difficult for any one man 
 to compass in the course of a lifetime, and so the earlier botanists 
 had conceived the advantage of florulas, to De prepared each for 
 his local section. Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell led off in 1807 in this 
 work by publishing a catalogue of the plants growing around his 
 country seat in New York, and he was followed by Maj. John le 
 Conte in a florula for the island of New York in 1811, and in 1814 
 Dr. Jacob Bigelow pubJished a model specimen of a local flora en- 
 titled Florula Bostoniensis. Subsequently the science uf botany 
 was enriched by the contributions of Dr. J. A. Brereton, for Wash- 
 ington, D. C. ; and in 1830 by Prof. C. W. Short, for Lexington, Ky. 
 
 It was the result of his botanical studies that Mr. Curtis gave to 
 the public under the title of "Enumeration of Plants Qroioing 
 Spontaneously Around Wilmington, North Carolina'^ vi'ith remarks 
 on some new obscure species." This first appeared in the Boston 
 Journal of Natural History, September 3d, 1834, (No. 2, vol. 1,) the 
 first edition of which was nearly all burnt, but it was subsequently 
 reprinted " with many additions and emendations." Dr. Gray says 
 it was one of the first works of the kind in this country in which the 
 names are accented. 
 
 His quick eye and assiduous application may be judged by the 
 fact that* in little more than two seasons, at intervals from other 
 
 * Enumeration of Plants, &c., M. A. Curtis, p. 83. Reprint Boston Journal 
 Natural History, Vol. i, No. 2, 1834. 
 
ELISIIA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. II 
 
 engagements, he made a collection of over a thousand species (ex- 
 actly 1,031.) This was two hundred less than were then reckoned 
 as belonging to the flora of Massachusetts, and more than half the 
 number described in Elliott's Botany of Sout) Carolina and Georgia, 
 and about a fourth of the phenogamous flora of the United States, 
 as then known. He then adds that much ground still remains un- 
 examined. Most of these plants were found within about two miles 
 radius of Wilmington, and a number of maritime species discovered 
 at Smithville, and several from Rocky Point. Dr. Darlington, who 
 was one of his earliest and warmest friends, speaks of Mr. Curtis at 
 that date as a careful observer and sagacious botanist. 
 
 At the time Mr. Curtis was pursuing his studies in Wilmington, 
 there were few professed botanists in the State. The year before 
 Dr. Curtis published his florula (1833),* H. B. Croom, Esq., and Dr. 
 H. Loomis made a pretty careful survey of Newbern, and printed a 
 catalogue of the plants they found growing in that neighborhood. 
 Subsequently (1837) Mr. Croom published an enlarged catalogue. 
 Mr. Croom was a lawyer, and a botanist of no mean ability, and 
 besides the above contributions, prepared a valuable monograph on 
 the Sarracenias which appeared in the third volume of the Annals 
 of the New York Lyceum. The memory of Mr. Croom received a 
 more distinguished record in the annals of botanic science than any 
 of his contemporaries or successors in North Carolina, having had a 
 genus (Croomia) named in honor of his contributions. 
 
 In a recent contribution "Ihe Botanical Gazette, (April, 1885,) Dr. 
 A. W. Chapman, author of the Flora of the Southern States, says: 
 
 "Fifty years ago, on one of those calm, hazy October evenings, 
 peculiar to the climate of Florida, the quiet of the pleasant town of 
 Quincy was interrupted by the rapid approach of a carriage with 
 attendant outriders, which, having made part of the circuit of the 
 public square, drew up before my oflBlce, and a gentleman of middle 
 age, spare habit, light hair and blue eyes, came forth and intro- 
 duced himself as Mr. Croom, of North Carolina. This was the com- 
 mencement of my brief intercourse with Hardy B. Croom, the dis- 
 coverer of Torreya; for as is well remembered, a year afterwards he 
 was lost at sea, with all of his family, on the passage froi.i New 
 York to Charleston. Of his personal traits, it is needless here to say 
 more than that he belonged to that class of wealthy and intelligent 
 Southern gentlemen whose homes, renowned for their unostenta- 
 tious hospitality, were the abode of all that is most charming in the 
 
 * Dr. Curtis gives the date of his publication as 1833, but in the reprint I 
 have, it is stated that the paper was communicated to the Boston Journal of 
 Natural History in 1834. 
 
12 JOURNAL OF THE 
 
 refinements of domestic life: but which now, by impoverishment, 
 resulting from disastrous civil conflict, and cons-tquent change of 
 social customs and duties, and by the invasion of lude manuersand 
 looser ethics, have entirely disappeared. * * * Mr. Croom was 
 then on one of his annual journeys from Newbern, N. C, the resi- 
 dence of the family, to his plan'ation in the adjoining county of 
 Leon: bur previously to settling in that county, he had rented a 
 plantation on the west bank of the Apalachicola river, opposite the 
 calcareous cliiis at Aspolaga, on the east bank, which at that time 
 were covered by a dense grove of Torreya, and it was here probably 
 in 1833 that he first saw it." 
 
 This glimpse of Dr. Curtis' contemporary is one of the very few I 
 have seen, and hence its insertion here. 
 
 In Wilmington Dr. James F. McRee, Sr. . also cultivated botany with 
 assiduity, and the two botanists worked together effectively. Dr. 
 McRee's country residence was at Hilton, the country seat of Cor- 
 nelius Harnett, near the junction of the ]S^orth East Cape Fear with 
 the main stream. It was at this house that Harnett received a visit 
 from Josiah Quincy,, and where plans were laid for the prosecution 
 of active hostilities against Great Britain. Here Dr. McRee cultiva- 
 ted with great care and with rare success the indigenous trees and 
 shrubs he collected in the course of his extensive j'ourneys in the 
 pursuit of his calling. Dr. McRee added 34 species to Curtis' cata- 
 logue, annotated by him, besides several which were printed in the 
 catalogue proper, and all through the writings of Dr. Curtis may be 
 fuund appreciative allusions to his scientific attainments. No proper 
 memorial has ever been made of this pioneer scientist. 
 
 Before railroads brought their freights speedily to our doors, and 
 the art of printing had so multiplied books, there could be found 
 upon the shelves of Dr. McRee's library the most recent and expen- 
 sive works on the science of medicine in which he was a great master, 
 but side by side with them he had a natural history collection in 
 volumes of such rare value that to day — the day of numerous and 
 valuable books — it would be considered exceedingly choice. Until 
 a late day in his life his herbarium was kept in order by replacing 
 new specimens, but as his health failed and the war brought sorrows 
 and cares to his home, his herbarium fell into neglect, and finding 
 no cultured hand to preserve its scientific treasures, it was aban- 
 doned, and its crumbling remains now lie neglected in the dusty 
 garret of a former slave, and the best of the books doubtless found 
 their way through the intervention of plunderers, to Northern book- 
 stalls, if they did not go down off Cape Fear in the ill fated steamer 
 Qen. Lyons, with thousands of dollars belonging to others of our 
 elf' ens. 
 
ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 1 3 
 
 Prof. Elisha Mitchell and Rev. Dr. L. De Schweinitz had preceded 
 Dr. Curtis in the study of North Carolina plants, the former to 
 abandon it for the more congenial study of geology, the latter to 
 establish a world-wide reputation. 
 
 Dr. Cyrus L. Hunter, of Lincoln county, published a list of such 
 plants as he found in his neighborhood, about the year 1834, a-jd 
 pursued his studies with more or less regularity and zeal since then. 
 
 This scanty review gives an idea of what degree of cultivation the 
 pursuit of botany had reached in North Carolina when Mr. Curtis 
 engaged in it. 
 
 To the south of us the Rev. Dr. Bachman, a diligent naturalist, 
 had made such advance in the study of botany as to publish a cata- 
 logue of the plants growing in the vicinity of Charleston. At the 
 same time, Mr. H. W. Ravenel was also a cultivator of the science. 
 Of both of these gentlemen Mr. Curtis speaks in his diary as having 
 met, while on a botanical tour in South Carolina and Georgia in 
 1835, also Mr. Leitner, of Georgia. 
 
 The number of botanists actually at work were few in number, 
 but those were bound together by the closest ties of scientific and 
 friendly interests. Much of the knowledge of plants was communi- 
 cated by means of long and carefully prepared letters, written with 
 that engaging art which unfortunately threatens to become extinct. 
 
 Mr. Curtis was twenty-two years old when he came to Wilmington 
 a young teacher. His early associations had been favorable for the 
 inculcation of a true scientific spirit. He found absorbing pleasure 
 in the quiet of the fields and forests, and without ever a thought of 
 becoming a scientific botanist, he amassed a wealth of knowledge, 
 and won an exalted position among the botanists of the world. No 
 doubt he looked forward to Saturday with eager expectation, that 
 he might exchange the constrained duties of the school room for the 
 freedom of the woods, and for pleasant intercourse with the old and 
 new floral friends he was to meet. 
 
 If there is such a thing as a scientific instinct, Mr. Curtis possessed 
 it. He was habitually accurate in his studies, and the results were 
 early relied upon by his correspondents. Coming into a new field 
 of botanical study, it was quite natural that he should have directed 
 his attention to the habits of the very local Dionoea muscipula. 
 Saturday after Saturday he would visit the savannahs, and lying 
 at length upon the ground, would watch its peculiarities. The 
 popular description which he gave of it in "Enumeration of Plants 
 around Wilmington," has been repeated for the last fifty years, and 
 
14 JOURNAL OF THE 
 
 shows how greatly he possessed the gift of accurate and entertainiug 
 description. I quote the passage without apology: 
 
 "The leaf, which is the only curious part, springs from the root, 
 spreading upon, the ground or at a little elevation above it. It is 
 composed of a petiole or stem with broad margins, like the leaf of 
 an orange tree, two to four inches long, whii h at the end suddenly 
 expands into a thick and somewhat rigid leaf, tlie two sides of which 
 are semicircular, about two-thirds of an inch across, and fringed 
 around their edges with somewhat rigid cilia or long hairs like eye 
 lashes. It is very aptly compared to two upper eyelids joined at 
 their bases. Each side of the leaf is a little concave on the inner 
 side, where are placed three delicate, hair-like organs in such an 
 order that an insect can hardly traverse it without interfering with 
 one of them, when the two sides suddenly collapse and enclose the 
 prey with a force surpassing an insect's efforts to escape. The fringe 
 or hairs of the opposite sides of the leaf interlace, like the fingers of 
 the two hands clasped together. The sensitiveriess resides only in 
 these hair-like processes on the inside, as the leaf may be touched 
 or pressed in any other part without sensible effects. 
 
 "The little prisoner is not crushed and suddenly destroyed, as is 
 sometimes supposed, for I have often liberated captive flies and 
 spiders which sped away as fast as fear or joy could hasten them. 
 At other times I have found them enveloped in a fluid of a mucila- 
 ginous consistence, which seems to act as a solvent, the insects 
 being more or less consumed in it. This circumstanoe has suggested 
 the possibility of their being made subservient to the nourishment 
 of the plant through an apparatus of absorbent vessels in the leaves. 
 But as I have not examined sufficiently to pronounce on the univer- 
 sality of this result, it will require further observation and experi- 
 ment on the spot to ascertain its nature and importance. It is not 
 to be supposed, however, that such food is necessary to the exist- 
 ence of the plant, but like compost, may increase its growth and 
 vigor. 
 
 " But however obscure and uncertain may be the final purpose of 
 such a singular organization, if it were a problem to construct a 
 plant with reference to entrapping insects, I cannot conceive of a 
 form and organization better adapted to secure that end than are 
 found in the Dioncea muscipula. 1 therefore deem it no credulous 
 inference that its leaves are constructed for that specific object, 
 whether insects subserve the purpose of nourishment to the plant 
 or not. It is no objection to this view that they are subject to blind 
 accident, and sometimes close upon straws as well as insects. It 
 would be a curious vegetable indeed, that had a faculty of dis- 
 tinguishing bodies, and recoiled at the touch of one, while it quietly 
 submitted to violence from another. Such capricious sensitiveness 
 is not a property of the vegetable kingdom. 
 
 "The spiders net is spread to ensnare flies, yet it catches whatever 
 falls upon it; and the ant lion is roused from his hiding place by the 
 fall of a pebble; so much are insects, also, subject to the blindness 
 of accident. Therefore the web of the one and the pitfall of the 
 other are not designed to catch insects! Nor is it in point to refer 
 to other plants of entirely different structure and habit which some- 
 times entangle and imprison insects. As well might we reason 
 
ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 1 5 
 
 against a spider's web because a fly is drowned in a honey pot, or 
 against a steel trap, because some poor animal has lost its life in a 
 cider barrel." 
 
 "In his note upon the structure of Diona^a, or Venus Fly-Trap, a 
 plant found only in the district around Wilmington," says Dr. Asa 
 Gray, "Dr. Curtis corrected the account of the mode of its wonderful 
 action that had prevailed since the time of Linnaeus, and confirmed 
 the statement and inferences of the first scientific describer, EUis, 
 namely, that his plant not only captures insects, but consumes them, 
 enveloping them in a mucilaginous fluid which appears to act as a 
 solvent." 
 
 During the preparation of his first little work he returned to 
 Boston and commenced his studies for the ministry, 1833-34, with 
 the Rev. William Croswell, While there he commenced a corres- 
 pondence with Dr. Torrey, who aided him in determining species. 
 His acquaintance with Dr. Gray commenced later, but became much 
 more intimate. 
 
 While on his way to Boston, he formed the acquaintance of Dr. 
 Darlington, of Westchester, Pa., and he afterwards became a valued 
 friend and a helper so long as he needed one. 
 
 He married Miss Mary DeRosset, daughter of the elder Dr. A. J. 
 DeRosset, of Wilmington December 3d, 1834. 
 
 He returned to the South in the latter part of 1834, continued his 
 studies with the Rev. Dr. R. B. Drane, and was ordained to the 
 ministry of the Episcopal church by Bishop Moore, of Virginia, in 
 1835. He immediately entered upon mission work in Western North 
 Carolina from Charlotte to the mountain country as far as Mor- 
 ganton, with his residence in Lincolnton. It was while pursuing 
 his work as a missionary that he took advantage of his journeying 
 in the solitary woods to pursue his botanical researches. Most of 
 his traveling was done in a " sulky," which was so arranged that his 
 portfolio was under the cushion. As he came across specimens by 
 the way, he would collect them and place them in his portfolio, and 
 so by the end of his journey he had secured a number of ready 
 pressed plants for future study, or for mounting permanently in his 
 herbarium. He left the mountain section at the end of 1836, and 
 was engaged as a teacher in the Episcopal school in Raleigh from 
 the beginning of 1837 to May 1839. 
 
 The summer of 1839 he spent in the mountain country for health 
 chiefly, though always carrying on his botanical explorations, and 
 went through that region to the extreme west and southwest of the 
 State, 
 
1 6 JOURNAL OF THE 
 
 Extending his botanical observations to the western borders of his 
 adopted State, Dr. Curtis was among the first to retrace the steps 
 and rediscover the plants found and published by the Elder Michaiix, 
 in the higher Alleghany mountains." (Sillitnan's Jour., January to 
 June, 1873, p. 392.) From the very beginning of these journeys the 
 search for a plant found in the Elder Michaux's herbarium was 
 begun and pursued with hopeful expectation for years. Michaux 
 had been proven so truthful and accurate in his descriptions, that 
 he had impressed his successors with faith in him. This veteran 
 botanist had collected a remarkable plant, as Dr. Gray says, with 
 the habit of Pyrola and the foliage of Galax, and the only specimen 
 extant was in the Michauxian herbarium, among the Planta incog- 
 nita, and this only in fruit. This plant, since discovered in flower 
 by Mr. Hyamsin McDowell, had already been named by Dr. Gray, in 
 honor of Prof. Short, of Kentucky, and now known as Shortia 
 galicifolia. Over and over again did Dr. Curtis traverse the line 
 of Michaux's travel for Shortia, but without success. 
 
 Prof. Gray* says in a paper in which he sketched the botanical 
 tours of the botanists who had visited the mountains of North Car- 
 olina in 1841: "No living botanist is so well acquainted with the 
 vegetation of the Southern Alleghany Mountains, or has explored 
 those of North Carolina so extensively as the Rev. Mr. M. A. Curtis, 
 who, when resident for a short time in their vicinity, visited, as op- 
 portunity occurred, Table Mountain, Grandfather, the Yellow Moun- 
 tain, the Roan, the Black Mountain, &c., and subsequently, 
 (although prevented by infirm health from making large collections) 
 extended his researches through the counties of Haywood, Macon, 
 and Cherokee, which form the narrow southwestern extremity of 
 North Carolina. To him we are indebted for local information, 
 which greatly facilitated our recent journey, and, indeed, for a com- 
 plete itinerarium of the region south of Ashe county." 
 
 Early in 1840 he was called to mission work about Washington, 
 in Beaufort county, remaining there a year, and early in 1841 he 
 removed to Hillsborough, where he remained six years. In April, 
 1847, he removed to Society Hill, in South Carolina, which accounts 
 for the fact that he is spoken of as a resident there, his residence at 
 that place having been nine years. From Society Hill Dr. Curtis 
 removed to Hillsborough in 1856, and resided there until his death 
 in 1872. 
 
 *Notes on a Botanical Excursion to the Mountains of North Carolina, &c. 
 Am. Journal Sc, Oct., Dec, 1841, p. 12. 
 
ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 1 7 
 
 As it is the design of this paper to speak more particularly of Dr. 
 Curtis as a botanist, it will be observed by many of his old friends 
 who knew of his labors in his Divine calling— how self-sacrificing 
 they were, how full of human sympathy, how devoid of self-seeking - 
 that I must leave this part of his life to those abler to record the 
 victories he won for the Cross. 
 
 The first botanical essay contributed by Dr. Curtis was more than 
 a mere catalogue, and it attracted the favorable notice of his teach- 
 ers and correspondents. It was so thorough that after a lapse of 
 half a century only about fifty species have been added to his list. 
 One of them has a peculiar interest as illustrating the laudable 
 jealousy with which he regarded his earlier achievements. 
 
 In the summer of 1867, Mr. Wm. M. Canby, of Wilmington, Del., 
 an esteemed friend of Dr. Curtis, a botanist second to none in the 
 Union for diagnostic learning, came to Wilmington to add to his 
 collection, and look over the old botanizing territory after the smoke 
 of war had cleared up. On the memorable occasion of this narra- 
 tive he had been to Hilton Ferry, close by the estate of Dr. James 
 F. McRee, in search of the very local Alligator Bonnets, (Nuphar 
 Sagitt^efohum.) He had completed his collection, and was carefully 
 spreading them on ihe logs to dry. His face was turned towards 
 the bank of the river, which at this point ib an abrupt bank of grey 
 marl, overhung by thick festoons of beautiful shrubbery. Clinging 
 to this wall, under the drippings of the water through the marl as 
 the tide recedes, he espied beautiful fronds of the true Maiden's Hair 
 Fern, (AdiantumCapillus- Veneris.) This beautiful fern had not before 
 been detected in this part of the State, or indeed north of Alabama. 
 The discovery was a great pleasure and surprise to Mr. Canby, for 
 here on the territory of Curtis he had been able to add such a beau- 
 tiful plant to his list. Specimens were soon borne by the mail to 
 Dr. Curtis, then living in Hillsborough, and the earliest mail brought 
 me a letter of specific instructions where to go and what to look for, 
 and I was able to verify Mr. Canby's discovery. It was not long 
 before Dr. Curtis had important business to attend to in Wilmington, 
 and a visit to the newly discovered Adiantum station was not the 
 least important. 
 
 Dr. Curtis' method as a student was that of broad-minded scien- 
 tist. Just to name a flower and preserve it carefully in his herba- 
 rium was to him but the beginning of his work. His earliest records 
 show that he studied the relation of plant-life to geologic and cli- 
 matic surroundings. The study of botanical geography was begun 
 and continued during his whole career as a botanist, extend- 
 
I8 JOURNAL OF THE 
 
 ing over 38 years. Tbe account he has given us in his " WooDY 
 PiiANTS," is to-day the best guide to the natural climatological 
 divisions of the State which has ever been giv^en. His studies were 
 also directed to the numerous economic questions which met him in 
 his intimate acquaintance with the treasures of the field and forest. 
 It was this feature of his labors alone which brought him an audi- 
 ence in his adopted State, and with this object in view he brought 
 together the material which he published as a part of the Geological 
 and Natural History Survey, known best by the condensed title 
 given to it by Prof. Emmons, as the " Woody Plants."" This volume 
 of 124 pages was printed by the State in 1860, and at once became a 
 popular manual for the farmer and the woodsman, and for amateur 
 botanists, a key to the more conspicuous trees and shrubs useful for 
 their fruit or timber, or as ornaments. The key devised to enable 
 one of no botanical knowledge to determine a given plant or shrub was 
 founded upon the character of the fruit, and distinguished by their 
 common name. The preface of this little work is an introduction 
 to the geographical distribution of plants in the State, and shows 
 what a thorough acquaintance he had with the vast subject. This 
 short essay attracted the attention of the whole country to the 
 unique position which our State holds in rei'pect to climate, soil and 
 forest products. Tiiat North Carolina nas a difference of elevation 
 between the east and west which gives a difference of climate equal 
 to 10 or 12 degrees of latitude, was first shown by Dr. Curtis in his 
 comparison of the local flora in his Woody Plants. He made him- 
 self acquainted at the very outset of his work as i botanist with 
 the labors of the earlier explorers of the State. In his " Plants 
 around Wilmington," w^find him quoting from BrickelTs Natural 
 History of North Carolina, and Catesby's Natural History of Caro 
 lina. The sketch he gives of the progress of botanical discoveries 
 in the State in his Woody Plants is full of interest, and shows how 
 deeply he caught the inspiration from their example of self-denial in 
 the cause of science. 
 
 In "Woody Plants" is displayed, as in the succeeding works 
 written by him, an accurate knowledge of the common names of 
 plants — a subject full of confusion — misleading young botanists and 
 bewildering the old ones. As though the change from one system 
 to another were not enough, then to add to this the formidable con- 
 fusion of synonyms (with no guide to its mysteries like Watson's,) 
 and then the local names of plants, it is confusion interminable. In 
 this study, though, Dr. Curtis had a cultivated philological turn. 
 
ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. I9 
 
 Scarcely a common name escaped him, as various as they were in 
 all the numerous localities. 
 
 Since Woody Plants was issued, it has been made the basis of 
 several publications, and we fear without proper authorization. The 
 report on Forestry by Hough, prepared for the general govern- 
 ment, has quoted voluminously from Curtis, and since then a volume 
 bearing on its covers the modest title of Woods and Timbers of 
 North Carolina only reveals its true character after we pass the 
 new title page. I am sure, though, that the author would have been 
 delighted when he was preparing his little volume for the press with 
 so much labor and such rare knowledge as a free offering to his 
 adopted State, if he could have known that it would have been so 
 largely read and appreciated by those for whom he originally in- 
 tended it. 
 
 As great a task as the collection of the Phsenogamous Plants was. 
 Dr. Curtis had fully completed it before his Woody Plants was pub- 
 lished. Of course, exception is here made to a. small number of 
 plants discovered since chiefly by Mr, W. M. Canby, Mr. Hyams, 
 Mr. McCarthy, Maj. Young, and myself. Early in his career he 
 undertook the study of the fungi. This very difficult branch of 
 botany at that time had few votaries, and the unexplored field was 
 immense. There was no book that could be considered a text-book 
 on the subject published in America. The Rev. L. D. de Schweinitz 
 had made two contributions to the fungi of America, one in 1820, 
 published in Leipsic, and entitled ''Fungi CaroUncB Super tor is,''' 
 the other a ''Synopsis Fangorum in America Boreali media de- 
 gentium,'''' published in the Transactions of the American Philo- 
 sophical Society in 1831. With these guides to local species, our 
 enthusiastic student addressed himself to his labor of love. 
 
 In 1846 he commenced a correspondence with Mr. H. W. Ravenel, 
 of South Carolina, a correspondence which was continued until Dr. 
 Curtis' death in 1872. Mr. Ravenel was then, as he is now, a de- 
 voted student of the fungi, having made large collections. His 
 position now among American botanists is that of very high au- 
 thority on the subject. 
 
 About two years after Dr. Curtis began his correspondence with 
 Mr. Ravenel, he also commenced a correspondence with the Rev. 
 M. J. Berkley, of England. Mr. Berkley became greatly attached 
 to Dr. Curtis by reason of the ardor and accuracy with which he 
 pursued the investigation of new species. De Schweinitz had him- 
 
20 T0Ur5;al of the 
 
 self discovered over 1200 species, chiefly in this State, but the field 
 was still far from being exhausted. Correspondence between these 
 gentlemen continued for a number of years, and a scientific copart- 
 nership was formed which resulted in the addition of nearly five 
 hundred new sj ecies to the list up to the year 1867, and since Dr. 
 Curtis' death a number of new species appeared in "Grevillia" 
 under the joint authorship of Berkley and Ctwtis. 
 
 Correspondence between botanists at that time was very active, 
 and the letters which were interchanged comprised the principj3|(_ 
 stock of knowledge then available. The letters which have been 
 preserved are very instructive, even at this date. Not only do we 
 find in them the growth of botanical science, but such notes about 
 the state of civilization as to roads, forests, dwellings, farms, taverns, 
 and the social condition of the people, which make them treasure 
 houses for the general historian. The correspondence between John 
 Bartram, and Collinson, Humphrey Marshall, Ellis, BenJ, Franklin, 
 and other notables of the day, with an editorial by Dr. Darlington, 
 is one of the few volumes which have preserved letters in a printed 
 form, and few volumes give a more satisfactory insight into the 
 state of our social affairs than this one. It is not a complete pano- 
 rama, but the passing allusions to what these itinerant botanists 
 saw, gives a keen relish to their work. It is to be regretted that 
 such a small part of this correspondence is preserved, for like that 
 of McRee and Curtis, much of it is long since inaccessible. 
 
 ^71 passant it is interesting to observe how little notice these 
 pioneers of science took of the current of political affairs. For 
 although the travels of VVm. Bartram through the Carolinas and 
 Georgia were made during the war of the Revolution, our zealous 
 botanist has no ear for the war-like preparations which must have 
 resounded in the air, but was totally absorbed in what Nature had 
 so lavishly spread out before him. For him no triumph was equal 
 to the discovery of a new plant, the solution of the mysteries of the 
 habits of birds and insects. Like all of his sect, the Friends, Bart- 
 ram had the strictest bias against the commotion of war, and this, 
 added to love of the knowledge of nature, may account for his 
 silence. 
 
 But to return from this digression. Dr. Curtis found this new 
 field of botany greatly to his liking. His habit of study was pains- 
 taking and accurate, and the microscopic work necessary for the 
 determination of species became in his hands a triumph of skill. It 
 was in this steady sedentary pursuit that Dr. Curtis injured his 
 health. For hours at a time, day by day, he pored over the micro- 
 
ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 21 
 
 metry of fungus spores. Few were the botanists with whom he 
 could compare specimens and interchange notes. He pursued this 
 specialty without the stimulus offered now by special societies, and 
 for the greater part of his career absolutely without an audience. 
 It is certain, therefore, that nothing but the intensest love of his 
 studies led him up to the highest station occupied by any American 
 botanist. I have heard him say, " Nothing surprised me more than 
 to be called a botanist at first. Although I had accomplished the 
 survey of the phenogamous plants of the State, I still felt that I was 
 comparatively not a botanist." But this modesty was habitual with 
 him. It was a modesty, however, not begotten of uncertainty, for 
 in all his work Dr. Curtis was accurate. If he spoke at all it was 
 always with the authority of the master. 
 
 Shortly after Dr. Hawks' Hibtory of North Carolina appeared, Dr. 
 Curtis published in the University Magazine, (1860), "J. Commen- 
 tary on the Natural History of Dr. Hawks' History of North Caro- 
 lina.'''' This paper demonstrated the thorough knowledge Dr. Curtis 
 had obtained of the botany of the old travelers and explorers. Dr. 
 Hawks had drawn with too free a hand the wonders of our truly 
 wonderful forests and fields, and had been led away quite uncon- 
 sciously by the florid accounts of Hariot, and Amadas & Barlowe, 
 and Lawson. The analysis which Dr. Curtis made left but little of 
 the fabulous statement of the early chroniclers disproved, and 
 proved Dr. Hawks to have been but slightly informed about natural 
 history. This paper is an almost complete key to Lawson's History, 
 as far as the natural history items are concerned, although it is not 
 a continuous narrative. The circulation which the University Mag- 
 az ne had at the time was not large enough to overtake the natural 
 history errors of Hawks' History, and many of them are extant to 
 this day as traditions among the common people. 
 
 It was during the war 1861—1865, that Dr. Curtis conceived the 
 idea of preparing a work on the Edible Fungi. The events which 
 led up to this scientific essay, it may be well to narrate. Although 
 he was well acquainted botanically with fungi, he was not an avowed 
 mycophagist until somewhere about 1855. Before this he expressed 
 himself to Mr. Berkeley as being afraid of them, as he had grown 
 up with the common prejudices against them entertained by most 
 people in this country. Having occasionally read of fearful acci- 
 dents from their use, and there being abundance of other and 
 wholesome food obtainable, he felt no inclination to run any risks 
 in needlessly enlarging his bill of fare, and so he passed middle life 
 without having once even tasted a mushroom. But as his confidence 
 
22 JOURNAL OF THE 
 
 increased, under the guidance and assistance of Mr. Berkeley, a 
 confidence to discriminate species grew up with it. and a curiosity 
 to test the qualities of these much-lauded articles got the better of 
 timidity, and at the time he wrote (1869) he could safely say that 
 he had eaten a greater variety of mushrooms than any one on the 
 American continent. He introduced several species before untried 
 and unknown. From the beginning of his experiments he exercised 
 great caution even with the species long recognized as safe and 
 wholesome. In every case he began only with a single mouthful, 
 ]S^o ill effect following, he made a second essay upon two or three 
 mouthfuls, and so on gradually until he made a full meal of them. 
 
 Fortunately he did not blunder upon any kind that was mischiev- 
 ous, although he ate freely of forty species. This, he says, was due 
 to the fact.'tiiat his general acquaintance with species which have 
 been long used in Europe, and his experiments were only with 
 species bearing some affinity or analogy to them. 
 
 Mycophagy was an art and a science with Dr. Curtis, and in a 
 letter to Mr, Berkeley he thus describes some of his experiences: 
 
 "Of the Merisma group of Polypores, having already tried P. frondosus, 
 confluens, and sulphureus, I ventured, after some hesitation, ^nd with more 
 than usual caution, to test the virtues of the new American species, (P. Berkelei, 
 Fr.,) notwithstanding the intense pungency of the raw material, which bites as 
 fiercely as Lactarius piperatus. When young, and before the pores are visible, 
 the substance is quite crisp and brittle, and in this State I have eaten it with 
 impunity and with satisfaction, its pungency being all dissipated by stewing. 
 I do not, however, deem it comparable with P. confluens, which is rather a 
 favorite with me, as it is with some others to whom I have introduced it. P. 
 sulphureus is just tolerable; safe, but not to be coveted when one can get better, 
 
 " When I say safe, I mean not poisonous. I cannot recommend it as a diet 
 for weak stomachs, which should be said of some other fungi of similar texture, 
 I am here reminded of an experience I had three or four years ago with this 
 species, which would have greatly alarmed me had it happened at an early date 
 in my experiments, and which would probably have deterred any one unused to 
 this kind of diet from ever indulging in it again. I had a sumptuous dish of it 
 on my supper table, of which most of my family, as well as a guest staying with 
 us, partook very freely. During the night I became very sick, and was not 
 relieved until relieved of my supper. xMy first thought on the accession of the 
 illness was of Polyporus sulphureus ; but as I remembered that inflammation 
 was one of the symptoms of fungus poisoning, and I could detect no indications 
 of this in my case, I soon dismissed the rising fear, did not send for the doctor, 
 nor take any remedy. Others who had partaken of the fungus more freely than 
 myself, were not at all affected ; and I presume my sickness was no more in- 
 duced by the Polyporus than by the bread and butter I had eaten. And yet 
 
ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 23 
 
 had I alone partaken of the dish, or had one or two others been affected in like 
 manner, doubtless the night attack would have been very confidently attributed 
 by some to the mushroom ; or had this been my first trial of that article, possibly 
 I might ever after have regarded it with suspicion. I learned a few days after- 
 wards, from one of our physicians, that this kind of sickness was then somewhat 
 prevalent in the community, and could be attributed to no known cause. For 
 the credit of this species, therefore, we were fortunately able to distinguish the 
 post hoc from the propter hoc. 
 
 There are families in America that for generations have freely and annually 
 eaten mushrooms, preserving a habit brought from Europe by their ancestors. 
 In no case have I heard of an accident among them. I have known no instance 
 of mushroom-poisoning in this country, except where the victim rashly ventured 
 upon the experiment without knowing one species from another. Among the 
 families above mentioned, I have not met with any whose knowledge of mush- 
 rooms extended beyond the common species (A. campestris) called Pink Gill 
 in this country. Several such families hve near me, but not one of them was 
 aware, until I informed them, that there are other edible kinds. Everything 
 but the Pink Gill, which had the form of a mushroom, was to them a toadstool, 
 and poisonous. When I first sent my son with a fine basket of imperials (A. 
 csesareus) to an intelligent physician, who was extravagantly fond of the common 
 mushroom, the lad was greeted with the indignant exclamation, "Boy, I 
 wouldn't eat one of those things to save your father's head !" When told they 
 were eaten at my table, he accepted them, ate them, and has eaten many a one 
 since with all safety and with no little relish. Since that time our mycopha- 
 gists eat whatever I send thein without fear or suspicion. 
 
 "I have interested myself to extend the knowledge of these things among 
 the lovers of mushrooms, and also their use among those who have not before 
 tried them. In the latter work I am not always successful, on account of a 
 strong prejudice against vegetables with such contemptuous names, and an un- 
 conquerable fear of accidents. Yet, as in my own case, curiosity often con- 
 quern these errors. When away from home I have frequently obtained ready 
 permission from a kind hostess to have cooked a dish of mushrooms that I had 
 found on her premises. It has rarely occurred in such cases that the dish, then 
 tasted for the first time, was not declared to be dehcious, or the best thing ever 
 put in the mouth. This latter phrase was once used in reference to so indif- 
 ferent an article as A. salignus. Indeed. I have found several persons who 
 class this among the most palatable species. To such persons, a dish of fresh 
 mushrooms need seldom be wanting, as this one can be had every month of the 
 year in this latitude. I am induced to believe that the quality of this species 
 varies with the kind of wood it grows from, and that it is better flavored when 
 gathered from the mulberry, and especially from the hickory, than when taken 
 from most other trees. Its fitness for the table seems also to depend much 
 upon the rapidity of its growth ; those which grow slowly, as is the case with 
 some of our garden vegetables, being of tougher texture and of less dehcate 
 flavor. A warm sun, after heavy rains, brings them out in greatest perfection. 
 
24 JOURNAL OF THE 
 
 " I have several times been asked by persons eating mushrooms for the first 
 time, whether these things belong to the vegetable or animal kingdom. There is 
 certainly a veiy noticeable resemblance in the flavor of some of them to that of 
 flesh, fish, or mollusc, so that the question, as founded merely on taste, is not an 
 unnatural one. But I was much struck with the propriet ywhen reading an article 
 in " Eraser's Magazine " a few years since, written by the late Mr. Broderip, 
 who therein says that mushrooms contain osmazome. If this be so, it accounts 
 both for their flavor and for their value as food. Of this latter quality I had 
 become so well convinced that, during our late war I sometimes averred, and I 
 doubt if there was much, if any, exaggeration in the assertion, that in some 
 parts of the country I could maintain a regiment of soldiers five months of the 
 year upon mushrooms alone. 
 
 " This leads to a remark which should not be overlooked, upon the great 
 abundance of eatable mushrooms in the United States. I think it is Dr. Bad- 
 ham who boasts of their unusual number in Great Britain, staling that there are 
 30 edible species in that kingdom. I cannot help thinking that this is an under 
 estimate. But if the doctor is correct, there is no comparison between the 
 number in your country and this. I have collected and eaten 40 species found 
 within two miles of my house. There are some others within this limit which 
 I have not yet eaten. In the catalogue of the plants of North Carolina, you 
 will notice that I have indicated one hundred and eleven species of edible fungi 
 known to inhabit this State. I have no doubt there are 40* or 50 more, as the 
 alpine portion of the State, which is very extensive and varied, has been very 
 little explored in search of fungi. 
 
 " In October, 1866, while on the Cumberland mountains in Tennessee, a 
 plateau less than 1,000 feet above the valleys below, although with little leisure 
 for examination during the two days spent there, I counted eighteen species of 
 edible fungi. Of the four or five species which I collected there for the table, 
 all who partook of them, none of whom had before eaten mushrooms, declared 
 them most emphatically delicious. On my return homeward, while stopping 
 for a few hours at a station in Virginia, I gathered eight good species within a 
 few hundred yards of the depot. And so it seems to be throughout the country. 
 Hill and plain, mountain and valley, woods, fields, and pastures, swarm with a 
 profusion of good nutritious fungi, which are allowed to decay where they spring 
 up, because people do not know how or are afraid to use them. By those of 
 us who know their use, their value was appreciated as never before during our 
 late war, when other food, especially meat, was scarce and dear. Then such 
 persons as I have heard express a preference for mushrooms over meat, had 
 generally no need to lack grateful food, as it was easily had for the gathering, 
 and within easy distance of their homes, if living in the country. Such was not 
 always the case, however. I remember on one occasion during the gloomy 
 period, when there had been a protracted drought, and fleshy fungi were to be 
 found only in damp shaded woods, and but few were there, I was unable to 
 find enough of any one species for a meal ; so gathering of every kind, I brought 
 home 13 different kinds, had them all cooked together in one grdiud. pot pourri. 
 
ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 2$ 
 
 and made an excellent supper. Among these was the Chaj^taielle, upon which 
 I would say a few words in confirmation of what I have already said upon the 
 varying qualities of mushrooms in different regions and localities. You have 
 somewhere written of this mushroom as being so highly esteemed a delicacy, 
 that it is much sought for when a dinner of state is given in London. Can this 
 be because it is a rarity ? (for nothing common and easily obtained is deemed a 
 delicacy, I believe), or because you have it of finer flavor in England ? Here, 
 where it abounds, no one seems to care at all for it, and some would forego 
 mushrooms entirely rather than eat this. It certainly varies much in quality, as I 
 have occasionally found it quite palatable, and again, though cooked in the same 
 mode, very indifferent. I have been unable to ascertain whether this difference 
 is due to locality, exposure, shade, soil, moisture, or temperature. That soil 
 has much to do with the flavor of some mushrooms I am well convinced. In 
 a parcel of Pink Gills I have sometimes found one or two specimens, though 
 perfectly sound, of such unpleasant odor and taste as would spoil a whole dish. 
 So also with the Snow Ball, (A. arvensis), of which I annually find a few 
 beautiful specimens growing near my residence, upon a grassy turf which covers 
 a pile of trash made up of decomposed sticks, leaves and scrapings from the 
 adjoining soil. Their taste and odor are perfectly detestable. I had one speci- 
 men cooked, but no amount of seasoning could abate the offensiveness of the 
 odious thing ; yet within lOO yards of these I gather specimens of the same 
 identical species, which are of fine flavor, equal to that of the best mushrooms. 
 As I have before intimated, the varying flavor of mushrooms growing on differ- 
 ent kinds of wood, so here I suppose the unpleasant qualities of some speci- 
 mens of these two well known and favorite species may be owing to something 
 in the soil where they grow which they cannot assimilate, and so render a pala- 
 table and wholesome species totally unfit for the table. Whether such speci- 
 mens, if eaten, would be poisonous or unwholesome. I do not feel any tempta- 
 tion to prove. It is not probable that they will ever do any mischief, for it is 
 incredible that any human being should so pervert his instincts as to swallow 
 such a villainous concoction. 
 
 " Experience and observation like these would perhaps justify the inference 
 that an innocent species may sometimes be deleterious, on account of its taking 
 up some bad element from the soil. But as I have never known a case of 
 poisoning in families that are well acquainted with the common mushroom or 
 Pink Gill, that gather the specimens for themselves and have used this article 
 of food annually for many generations ,1 cannot agree with an objection some- 
 where made by you, that perhaps all mushrooms contain a poisonous element, 
 but some of them in such small quantity as to have no appreciable effect. Now, 
 had you seen the quantities of stewed mushrooms swallowed at a single meal 
 which I have seen thus devoured, and with no more harm than from the same 
 amount of oyster or turtle soup, I think you would be forced to the conclusion 
 that such an amount, even of poisonous infinitesimals, must have had some 
 very unpleasant manifestations, or else be a very innocent diet." 
 
26 JOURNAL OF TPIE 
 
 It would seem that our rigidly scientific botanist did not disdain 
 the subtle arts of the gastronomist. For example, in this letter to- 
 the Rev. Mr. Berkeley, from which I have already made a lengthy 
 extract, ho says. '* The Lycoperdon giganteum is also a great favor- 
 ite with me, as indeed, with all my acquaintances who have tried it. 
 It has not the high aroma of some other>, but it has a delicacy of 
 flavor that makes it superior to any omelette I have ever eaten. It 
 seems, furthermore, to be so digestible as to adapt it to the most 
 delicate stomachs. This is t e Southdown of mushrooms." 
 
 Could gastronomic enthusiam run higher than to compare a devil's 
 snuff box, that the school boy takes particular delight in using as a 
 foot ball to show his detestation, to the luscious meat of a South- 
 down mutton! And then triuujphantly he adds, in this latitude 
 (about 36^) we can find good mushrooms for the table nine or ten 
 months of the year, and some even the year round, and one some- 
 times emerging from the soil frozen solid 1 
 
 Dr. Curtis' neighbors shared largely his gastromic pleasures. It 
 was his custom to send baskets of the choicest of them to his friends, 
 until the divine art of mycophagy reached a good degree of cultiva- 
 tion, and many of them learned to distinguish for themselves the 
 edible ones. Some members of his family became'especially expert 
 in foraging for the table among the mushrooms, and Mr. Chas. J. 
 Curtis, now the Rev. Mr. Curtis, afterwards put his knowledge of the 
 forms of these plants to use, by drawing and coloring specimens to 
 illustrate his father's still unpublished work on the " Edible Fungi.'''' 
 This work was designed to popularize the use of mushrooms as an 
 article of food. It was written during the late war, when the sub- 
 ject of food was a matter of daily solicitude to thousands of families. 
 In taking up the pen for this work. Dr. Curtis succeeded admirably 
 in divesting himself of every technicality, and, indeed, of describing 
 minutely about 40 of t'se 111 species, in language not only easy to be 
 understood, but he really made the subject very enticing. Illustrations 
 and comparisons were occasionally drawn from the numerous for- 
 eign authors he had mastered. When the war ended and a pub- 
 lisher was sought for the work on " Edible Fungi," little encourage- 
 ment was given. It now remains in MS. 
 
 The subject has never been very popular in the United States, and 
 the students who underta.ke its study are not numerous, and myco- 
 phagists do not abound : the former seek for information in works 
 of English and French authorship, and the latter are content with 
 the authenticity of the trade mark on the cans of Champignons, 
 imported from France. 
 
ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 27 
 
 In 1867, the State published as a part of the Geological and 
 Natural History Survey, ''A Catalogue of the Indigenous and 
 Naturalized Plants (of the State,") by Dr. Curtis. It was intended 
 that this work should have been printed with '' Woody Plants," 
 but the outbreak of the war prevented it. At the time of its issue, 
 in 1867, its author stated that it was the most extensive local list of 
 plants ever published in North America, comprising over 4,800 
 species. It was the first attempt to enumerate the cryptogamous as 
 well as the pheuogamous plants made by any botanist in this 
 country, and its appearance was a matter of much scientific con- 
 gratulation. The volume consisted of 158 pages of catalogue, with 
 no scientific description, but a mere statement of the locality of each 
 plant. This was the result of twenty-five years of botanical study, 
 over a territory of 50,000 square miles. Still he was quite confident 
 in the assertion that few flowering plants would be added to his list, 
 and that the additions which would reward the researches of future 
 olfobservers would be entirely cryptogams. 
 
 Tc has always been a matter of regret that this work of a lifetime 
 should have been given to the public in such a skeleton form, and 
 produced in such a primitive state of the typographer's and~ book- 
 maker's art. The only reward to the man of science was the con- 
 sciousness of his thorough work, and the State could well have 
 afforded to have made an ample \olume in which he might have 
 recorded the rich treasures of his research for the use of the future 
 student. But it seems that Dr. Curtis was very many years in 
 advance of his time, and the expectation that his broad foundation 
 would have been built upon by his early successors has little prospect 
 of f ulflhnent. 
 
 The part which Dr. Curtis took in the progress of American Bot- 
 any, was always recognized as important. His correspondence was 
 very extensive, and his herbarium was consulted by botanists with 
 great satisfaction. So largely did Dr. Chapman feel himself in- 
 debted to Dr. Curtis for aid, that he dedicated the first edition of 
 his Flora of the Southern United States to him, and the two bota- 
 nists were in close communication until the death of Dr. Curtis in 
 1872. 
 
 " All our associate's work was marked by ability and conscientiousness. 
 With a just appreciation both of the needs of the science and of what he could 
 best do under the circumstances, when he had exhausted the fields in Phfe- 
 nogamous Botany within his reach, he entered upon the inexhaustible ground 
 of Mycology, which had been neglected in this country since the time of 
 Schweinitz. In this difficult department he investigated and published a large 
 
28 JOURNAL OF THE 
 
 number of new species, as well as determined the old ones, and amassed an 
 ample collection, the preservation of which is most important, comprising, as it 
 does, the specimens, drawings and original notes which are to authenticate his 
 work. By his unremitting and well directed labors, filling the intervals of an 
 honored and faithful professional life, he has richly earned the gratitude of the 
 present and ensuing generations of botanists." 
 
 (Am. Jour, of Science. Third series. Vol. V. No. 29, May, 1873.) 
 
 During Dr. Curtis' lifetime very little attention had been paid to 
 the life-history of fungi by the medical profession. The theory of 
 contagium vivum was barely foreshadowed by J. li. Mitchell, and 
 afterwards by Salisbury, but so crude was the botany of even these 
 writers, that they made but little impression upon the medical pro- 
 fession, and only excited the mild derision of the real botanists. I 
 well remember upon one occasion when a group of doctors had 
 accidentally met at the office of a brother physician, and were ad- 
 miring the beautiful microscopic appearance of several fungi, espe- 
 cially the Oidiufn albicans, as figured in the book of the season — 
 Beale on the "'Microscope in Practical Medicine^ This fungus ]5-/ 
 was supposed to stand in relation of a causative agent in muguet or 
 thrush. Dr. Curtis came up in the midst of our discussion of the 
 subject, and at once recognized a very familiar fundus and made it 
 very clear to us that fungus spores only found lodgment when the 
 soil was prepared to receive it, and that we must beware of a two Of 
 hasty conclusion of the disease-carrying properties of the fungi. 
 Oidium was found in the mouth of the baby with thrush because 
 there was a condition precedent which favored its lodgment, and so 
 far from being the cause of the disease, it was the result of the dis- 
 ease. His familiarity with the forms, which to doctors who had 
 been four years cut off from medical literature, was truly wonderful, 
 but was a pretty clear statement of the general principles which 
 to-day are held by some of the best thinkers in the medical profes- 
 sion. 
 
 I have spoken of Dr. Curtis' splendid achievements, his scientific 
 precision, his ardor in the pursuit of natural history, his completion 
 of a botanical survey almost to the remotest domain of the lowest 
 microscopic plant, but I would not have you believe that this was 
 the sum of his life work. Botanical science was his pastime and 
 recreation. In the mission he had chosen as a servant of Christ, 
 he was no sluggard. He was a pioneer missionary in the rugged 
 hills of North Carolina, when to be a pioneer was to suffer hardship 
 and privation. Love and sympathy beamed from his benignant 
 face, and wherever he went his Master's mission of "Peace on earth 
 
ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 29 
 
 and good will towards men," was made actual by the tenor of his 
 own life. 
 
 An intimate friend, Rev. Dr. F. M. Hubbard, who knew him well 
 as a collegian, as a minister of the gospel, as a scientific botanist, 
 thus speaks of him : 
 
 The Diocese of North Carolina has suffered a great loss, and the church at 
 large hardly less, in the recent death of the Rev. Dr. Curtis, and his many ex- 
 cellences deserve a larger notice than the customary announcement that one 
 much loved has been called to his reward. His health had been rather feeble 
 for seven^l years, but the end came very suddenly, and was a sad blow to all 
 who knew him. The Rev. Moses Ashley Curtis was a native of Stockbridge, 
 Mass., and graduated at Williams College, in that State, in the class of 1827. 
 Some three or four years after leaving college he removed to Wilmington, North 
 Carolina, where he was married, and in that State the most of his later life was 
 spent. He was ordained by Bishop/Ives) and after a brief tour of missionary 
 duty, took charge of St. Matthew's Church, Hillsboro. To this parish, except- 
 ing that he was for a few years the Rector of Trinity Church, Society Hill, S. 
 C. the active, clerical service of his life was given. Here, by the great strength, 
 as well as the sweetness of his character, his unwearied labors, his quick and 
 tender sympathies, his high attainments in learning, and warm and steadfast 
 affections, he won from his people, and, indeed, from all who knew him, a love 
 and reverence that were hardly less than devotion. Few men are more earnestly 
 loved while they live, or, when they are called to die, are more sincerely 
 mourned. 
 
 By his brethren of the clergy he was no less valued. Indeed, it is no dis- 
 paragement of the many excellent men of that order in that diocese to say that 
 no one among them was more esteemed and revered by them than was Dr. 
 Curtis. He was a well read and skillful theologian, a good classical scholar, 
 and not unfamiliar with modern languages. His degree of Doctor in Theology 
 was given by the University of North Carolina. His duties as the rector of a 
 parish, of course, occupied him chiefly ; but ?is his tastes, developed in very 
 early life, led him to give much of his leisure to the study of natural history. 
 In all the departments that are included under this name, ne was singularly 
 well informed. Botany was, however, his favorite field, and in it he gained a 
 very enviable reputation. He had thoroughly — none so much so — explored the 
 plants of North Carolina from the sea to the mountains, and the monographs 
 he published are very accurate and of great value. His correspondence on this 
 subject, both at home and in Europe, was very extensive, and no man in the 
 Southern States had a higher or wider reputation. For many years his investi- 
 gations were mainly microscopic, and in cryptogamic botany he was in that 
 region without a peer. The standard work of the Rev. Dr. Berkely on English 
 mycology owed much to his minute and careful researches, and was at first pub- 
 lished under their joined names. In the survey of the State, ordered by the 
 Legislature, the department of natural history was entrusted to him, and his 
 
30 JOURNAL OF THE 
 
 report on the woody shrubs, etc., was of great and popular value. He had also 
 ready for the press a treatise on edible mushrooms, which would be of much use 
 to the people of this country, should it see the light. 
 
 These were his amusements, and such is an imperfect statement of the results. 
 Yet they never diverted his thoughts or labors from the cure of souls, in which 
 he delighted, or from his Master's cause, for which he lived. Besides the care 
 of his own parish, he served for many years as a member of the Standing Com- 
 mittee of the Diocese of North Carolina. He was sent as a deputy to the 
 General Convention and to the Southern Councils as often as he could be m- 
 duced to accept the trust, and was the clerical trustee from North Carolina of 
 the " University of the South," from its inception through his life, and ren- 
 dered to its interests wise and faithful service. 
 
 To his family and parish, to which he was so dear, and to his diocese and 
 brethren that so highly regarded his noble qualities and eminent usefulness, the 
 departure of such a man is a mosc sad loss. One who had been in intimate 
 relatioivs with him for well nigh half a century may close this scanty sketch by 
 saying that in all that time he has met no man to whom he gave a heartier 
 es*:eem, or a more sincere affection ; no man more true in word and deed, more 
 steadfast in friendship, of a more beautiful simplicity, of a more sterling worth, 
 of a more humble temper of devotion. 
 
 Science did not mislead him into the paths of skepticism ; for 
 him 
 
 " The earth was crammed with heaven. 
 And every common bush afire with God." 
 
 God's wondrous worlis were visible to him in every plant he saw, 
 and all his converse with nature only drew him nearer to that divine 
 life to\7ards which it was his mission to lead his fellow men. 
 
 To our young men we point to his life as an example of the im- 
 mense advantage of patient training, and of the renown it is possible 
 to achieve by quiet, unobtrusive worii, even in the stillness of the 
 forest. Also to our young men, and to all men, we will say, his life 
 was the proof that profound scientific study is not only not incom- 
 patible with profound faith in revealed religion, but is the safest 
 path through which to attain it. - 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 "Enumeration of Plants growing Spontaneously around Wil- 
 mington, North Carolina," with remarks on some new and obscure 
 species, by Moses A. Curtis, A. M., vol. 1, No. 2, Boston Journal of 
 Natural History, Communication Sept. 3d. 1834. Reprint with 
 
ELTSHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 3 1 
 
 many additions and emendations, the result of further research. 
 Reprint with MS. additions and index, by Dr. James F. McRee. 
 
 "New and rare Plants of North Carolina,'' dated Hillsboro, N. 
 C, Nov. 1, 1842. (Silliman's Journal, vol. 14, p. 80, Art. XI.) 
 
 " Contributions to Mycology of North America," by M. A. Curtis. 
 (Sill. Jour., vol 6, 2d series, p. 349, Art. 33, 1848.) 
 
 " New and rare Plants, chiefly of the Carolinas." (Sill. Jour., 
 vol. 7, p. 406, 1849.) 
 
 "Contributions to Mycology of North America," by Rev. M. J. 
 Berkeley, of England, and Rev. M. A. Curtis, of South Carolina. (Sill. 
 Jour., vol. 8, 2d series, p. 401, 1849.) 
 
 " New Fungi collected by the Wilkes Exploring Expedition," by 
 M. A. Curtis. (Sill. Jour., vol. XI, p. 95, 1851.) 
 
 " Contributions to Mycology of North America," by Rev. M. J. 
 Berkeley, of England, and Rev. M. A. Curtis, of South Carolina. 
 (Sill. Jour., 2d series, vol. 9, p. 171, 1859, and voL 10, p. 185.) 
 
 "Geological and Natural History Survey of North Carolina," 
 part III, Botany. Containing a catalogue of the plants of the State, 
 with description and history of the trees, shrubs and woody vines, 
 by M. A. Curtis, Raleigh, 1860. 
 
 " A Commentary on the Natural History of Dr. Hawks' History 
 of North Carolina," by Rev. Dr. Curtis, of Hillsboro, March, 1860. 
 
 "Esculent Fungi," by Rev. M. A. Curtis, in manuscript, gwith 
 colored illustrations. (Sill. Jour., 3d series, vol. 42, p. 129, 1866.) 
 
 " Geological and Natural History of North Carolina, part III. 
 Indig. and Naturalized Plants of North Carolina. Raleigh, 1867, 
 pp. 155. 
 
 "Edible Fungi in North Carolina." Rev. Moses A. Curtis, D. D., 
 Gardner's Chronicle, London, October 9th, 1869.