89 



bis friends as a substitute for meat. Curtis also published a numbei 

 of articles on fungi in American periodicals but he did not confine his 

 attention to fungi, for one of his most Lmportanl works included the 

 phsenogamic flora of his region. It might be of interest to note here 

 thai his valuable collection of fungi is now the property of the Crypto- 

 gramic Herbarium of Harvard. 



"Later workers in this early period were Frost of Vermont, in- 

 terested chiefly in the fleshy fungi. Lea of Ohio, and Ravenel of South 

 Carolina. The latter's work is of special interest because he was tin- 

 first to publish exsiccati of American fungi, issuing one set on the 

 fungi of Carolina and a larger one on the fungi of North America. 



" From these preliminary statements you will readily observe that 

 these early investigators were of a different type from the plant patho- 

 logists of to-day. In the first place they gained their living through 

 other vocations. In the second, as botanists, they were usually almost 

 equally interested in the flowering plants ; in other words, they were, 

 more of the type of naturalists than of specialists. Finally, what they 

 knew of fungi they had gained largely at first hand, through contact 

 with nature, and not at any institution of learning. Their work was a 

 work of love and of pleasure, unmixed with duty and necessity. 

 Naturally the large and showy forms, such as the fleshy fungi, received 

 most attention, while the economic species attracted less. At that 

 time, however, there was not great need for the study of the parasites 

 of the garden, field, or orchard. To them we are indebted for speci- 

 mens, for lists showing distribution and for meagre descriptions of new 

 forms, but not for detailed studies in any direction, for they were 

 pioneers. 



" Coming to the second period, Ave find the type that characterizes 

 it is that of the teacher. The professor and the pupil now come into 

 prominence. Previous to 1870 the botany taught in our institutions 

 of learning was the botany of flowering plants. Asa Gray, recog- 

 nizing .the importance of the subject made provision at this time for 

 instruction in the lower cryptogams at Harvard. 



" Harvard, however, was not alone in its provision for instruction in 

 the cryptogams. About this time our State universities were coming 

 into existence and their influence, as well, was felt in the shaping of 

 new courses of study and the equipping of laboratories. Among the 

 earliest to take up this work was the University of Illinois under the 

 direction of Professor Burrill, still its head professor of botany. This 

 educational movement has been one of slow but ever of sure and up- 

 ward growth. To-day we find not one or two but practically all of 

 our colleges giving at least some instruction on fungi, and in many 

 institutions there are special courses in plant pathology. No longer is 

 it necessary for the professor, or the student to go abroad for study. 

 though this is still done to some extent. 



"Our botanists no sooner became instructors than they started in 

 to be investigators as well. These investigations for the first time 

 took on an economic character. Professor Farlow had scarcely become 

 established at Bussey before he issued a paper on the potato rot. That 

 was about thirty years ago and strange as it may seem botanists are 

 still working on the same subject. This paper was followed by others 

 by the same author on mildew of grape, black knot. etc. Burrill oi 



