Curtis : Lucien Marcus Underwood 9 



advantage of the opportunity to examine the famous herbaria and 

 become acquainted with the botanical leaders in his line of study, 

 such as Prantl, Strasburger, Ascherson, Magnus, Ward, Chodat, 

 Saccardo, De-Toni, Baillon, and others. The interest thus aroused 

 led him repeatedly to visit England and the Continent, in all mak- 

 ing eight trips for the purpose of comparison and study at various 

 botanical centers. 



He had for a long time contemplated the preparation of a work 

 on the cryptogamic flora of North America modeled somewhat on 

 the pattern of Rabenhorst's Kryptogamen- Flora, but his views 

 broadened as a result of his continental experiences, and early in 

 1893 he wrote a letter to Professor Britton proposing the forma- 

 tion of a body to organize a general descriptive work on the flora 

 of North America. This resulted in the creation of a standing 

 board of editors of the "Systematic Botany of North America/' 

 which was subsequently transferred to Underwood and Britton 

 under the new title, "North American Flora," to be published by 

 the New York Botanical Garden. He served as vice-president of 

 the Botanical Section of the American Association at the New 

 York meeting in 1 894. 



Owing to financial difficulties at De Pauw, the department of 

 botany was temporarily abolished in 1895, when he accepted a 

 position as professor of biology in the Alabama Polytechnic Insti- 

 tute. He was interested chiefly in fungi during this stay at 

 Auburn and made extensive collecting trips in several of the 

 southern states. Several papers were published upon the fungi, 

 dealing chiefly with their economic importance. Owing to the 

 difficulty of approaching the study of these plants, he began the 

 collection of the extensive and scattered literature of the subject 

 with a view to preparing a work that would serve as an introduc- 

 tion to the study of the group. Later, this material was put into 

 form and appeared in 1899 as a volume entitled "Moulds, Mil- 

 dews, and Mushrooms." During this period he completed the 

 text on the Pteridophyta for Britton and Brown's Illustrated Flora. 



After one year at Auburn he became professor of botany in 

 Columbia University in July, 1896. Up to this period his life had 

 indeed been a varied one, but it is not to be inferred that this was 

 due to any uncertainty of purpose or lack of perception. Three 



