LETTER FROM PROF. WOOD. 



HiLLSBORO, N. C. March, 13th, '57. 

 This place, situated in the broken interior of this great State, is 

 one of the oldest towns, both in appearance and in fact, which I 

 have yet seen. It is famous in histor as once the head-quarters of 

 Lord CoRNWALLis, and the very building used by that old notable 

 as his "Markee" still stands a delapidated shop just over the way 

 yonder. 



The rock in this vicinity, is a sort of mongrel granite, coarse and 

 unsightly. The soil is mostly clay, the redest of the red ; indeed 

 exactly the color of Spanish-brown ; it is strong and when well cul- 

 tivated, productive. Corn and wheat are the staples in this part of 

 the State. In the woods are many species of trees common in New 

 England, as the black and yellow birch, beech, maples, and hemlock. 

 As I came to this region for the purpose of studying botany, I lost 

 no time after ariving, in repairing to the residence of the Rev. M. 

 A. Curtis, D. D. a highly respectable clergyman of the Episcopal 

 Church in this town. Dr. Curtis is widely and most favorably 

 known among the botanists of both Europe and America, and his 

 name occurs frequently in all works treating of the American flora. 

 Actuated by a most ardent love of natural science, he has for the 

 past twenty years of his life, found his pastime in the study of plants, 

 and his collection of American species is perhaps unequaled in ex- 

 tent by any other private herbarium in the land. Of late years he 

 has devoted himself exclusively to the collection and study of Fungi, 

 a field of research exceedingly broad and one wherein the Dr. has in 

 this country, no rival. His herbarium contains some 30,000 speci- 

 mens of these plants, belonging to some eight or ten thousand 

 species of which nearly five hundred are new, having been first de- 

 tected, defined and named by himself. 



But what are the Fungi ? is a question which some of our readers 

 may ask, on reading the vast numbers above stated. Something 

 more than toadstools and pufF balls are required to amount to such. 

 Among the Fungi are reckoned the Molds and Blights and Mil- 

 dews, which arise from any decaying substance, the Dry Rot, the 

 Red snow and the Jelly Plants ; in short, every flowerless plant 

 which is neither moss, nor lichen, nor liverwort, nor sea-weed, falls 



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