ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 1/ 



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 

 Sagittiefolium.) He had completed his collection, and was carefully 

 spreading them on the logs to dry. His face was turned towards 

 the bank of the river, which at this point, lb 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, (Adiantum Capillus- 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- 



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