352 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
to the Boston Society of Natural History his first botanical 
work, namely, his ‘‘ Enumeration of Plants growing spon- 
taneously 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 the 
subsequent reprint. The author’s powers of observation and 
aptitude for research are well shown in this publication, and 
it is one of the first of the kind in this country in which the 
names are accented. In his note upon the structure of Dionza, 
or Venus’s Fly-trap, —a plant found only in the district 
around Wilmington, — Dr. Curtis corrected the account of 
the mode of its wonderful action which had prevailed since 
the time of Linnzus, and confirmed the statement and infer- 
ences of the first scientific describer, Ellis, namely, that this 
plant not only captures insects, but consumes them, envelop- 
ing them in a mucilaginous fluid which appears to act as a 
solvent. Extending his botanical observations 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 Moun- 
tains. But for the last twenty-five years his scientific studies 
were mainly given to mycology, in which he became a profi- ° 
cient, and the highest American authority. His papers upon 
Fungi, some of which are large, and all are 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 the able English mycolo- 
gist Mr. Berkley. 
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 of sharpness of wit without acerbity ; two papers 
in Silliman’s Journal on “ New and Rare Plants of the Caro- 
linas”; and the botanical portion of the “‘ Geological and Nat- 
ural History Survey of North Carolina,” in two parts ; — the 
first a popular account of the trees and shrubs, issued in 
