324 
Natural History Survey, a “Catalogue of the Indigenous and 
Naturalized Plants of North Carolina,’ by Dr. Curtis. This Cata- 
logue included 4,800 species, and was the first attempt made by 
any botanist in this country to enumerate the cryptogams as well 
as the flowering plants, and its appearance was a matter of much 
scientific congratulation. This work was the result of 25 years of 
botanical study over a territory of 50,000 square miles. 
The most important purely scientific papers of Dr, Curtis were 
his contributions to the mycology of North America, published in 
several volumes of Silliman’s Journal. 
A genus of plants, Ravenelia, belonging to the same family as 
the rust of wheat, perpetuates the name of Dr. Henry W. Ravenel, 
of South Carolina. At the time of his death, less than four years 
ago, there were among American botanists none more respected 
and beloved and few whose scientific work covered so many years 
of activity. 
Born with a fondness for natural history, Ravenel pursued his 
botanical studies with great earnestness and enthusiasm during 
the whole of his long life. He made extensive collections of 
plants, but he was no ordinary collector, heaping up rough ma- 
terial to be exchanged for specimens to be counted rather than 
studied. He was a most accurate observer, and always noted the 
habits and peculiarities of the plants he gathered. There was not 
a group of plants, no matter how small, which escaped his obsef- 
vation. He not only studied critically the phanerogams of his 
State, but he collected and studied as far as it was possible in his 
time and in a region remote from large libraries, mosses, lichens, 
alge and fungi. He was a zealous follower of Dr. Curtis, and be — 
came recognized as authority on the species of fungi in the South- : 
ern States, for no one possessed such an intimate acquaintance — 
with them. He discovered many new flowering plants and a sur 
prisingly large number of cryptogams. His interest in the latter 
group brought him into correspondence with the leading mycolo- f 
gists of Europe, and Ravenel became nearly as well known abr oad : 
as at home. He is best known to the botanists of to-day by his 
_ published sets of fungi, a dozen volumes or more, which are ROW = 
rare and exceedingly valuable. His writings are not numerousy ss 
but they are characterized by thoroughness and indicate an active — 
