472 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



his predilection fixed by his residence at Wilmington, one of the richest 

 and most remarkable botanical stations in the United States. For it 

 was in the year 1834, after only three years' residence there, that he com- 

 municated to the Boston Society of Natural History his first botanical 

 work, namely, his " Enumeration of Plants growing spontaneously 

 around Wilmington, North Carolina, with Remarks on some New and 

 Obscure Species." This was printed in the first volume and second 

 number of that Society's Journal ; but the original impression having 

 been mainly destroyed by fire, important additions and emendations were 

 made in tbe subsequent reprint. The author's powers of observation 

 and aptitude for research are well shown in this publication, and it is 

 one of the earliest of the kind in this country in which the names of 

 the genera and species are accented. In his note upon the structure 

 of Dionasa, or Venus's Fly-trap, — a plant found only in the dis- 

 trict around Wilmington, — Dr. Curtis corrected the account of the 

 mode of its wonderful action which had prevailed since the time of 

 Linnaeus, and confirmed the statement and inferences of the first 

 scientific describer, Ellis, namely, that this plant not only captures 

 insects, but consumes them, enveloping them in a mucilaginous fluid 

 which appears to act as a solvent. Extending his botanical observa- 

 tions to the western borders of his adopted State, Dr. Curtis was among 

 the first to retrace the steps and rediscover the plants found and pub- 

 lished by the elder Michaux, in the higher Alleghany Mountains. But 

 for the last twenty-five years, his scientific studies were mainly given 

 to mycology, in which he became a proficient and the highest American 

 authority. His papers upon Fungi, some of which are large, and all 

 important, were mainly published by the American Philosophical 

 Society, and by the Linnean Society of London. Several of them 

 are the joint productions of Dr. Curtis and of the able English 

 mycologist, Mr. Berkeley. His other published writings mainly are 

 " A Commentary on the Natural History of Dr. Hawks's ' History 

 of North Carolina,' " — a good specimen of his appreciation of exact 

 research, and sharpness of wit wholly free of acerbity ; two papers 

 in " Silliman's Journal" on "New and Rare Plants of the Carolinas" ; 

 and the botanical portion of the " Geological and Natural History 

 Survey of North Carolina," in two parts ; — the first, a popular account 

 of the trees and shrubs, issued in 1860 ; the other, a catalogue of all the 

 plants of the State, in 1867. This includes the lower Cryptogamia, 

 especially the Fungi, of which he enumerates almost 2,400 species, 



