838 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Say should be described by Nuttall. The work was begun by 

 this naturalist, but he was obliged to go to Europe, and was pre- 

 vented from returning in season to do any more. The plants were 

 accordingly put in the hands of von Schweinitz, who described 

 them most acceptably. 



Toward the end of 1823 the then well-known botanist com- 

 municated to the Lyceum of Natural History (now the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences), of New York, a key or analytical table for 

 determining the American species of Carex the largest genus 

 of the sedges. This production, though small in bulk, could 

 result only from ample knowledge and exact discrimination. In 

 1824 the American Journal of Science published a short paper 

 by him on the rarer plants of Easton, Pa. There was another 

 synod at Herrnhut this year which it was necessary for him to 

 attend, and, having a Monograph of the North American Carices 

 about completed, he put the manuscript, together with a large 

 collection of specimens, into the hands of Dr. Torrey, in order 

 that the monograph might be communicated to the Lyceum of 

 Natural History in his absence. He gave full liberty for mak- 

 ing any additions or alterations warranted by Dr. Torrey 's later 

 discoveries. When he found, on returning, that his editor had 

 made important additions to the number of species described, von 

 Schweinitz, with characteristic conscientiousness, requested that 

 the paper should be published as their joint production, saying 

 that " the judicious and elaborate amendments he has proposed, 

 and the mass of new and valuable matter he has added, entitle 

 Dr. Torrey to a participation in the authorship of the work." 

 The whole number of species described was one hundred and thir- 

 teen, of which six were new. This and the analytical table of the 

 Carices were both printed in the first volume of the Annals of 

 the Lyceum. In his absence a paper in which he described fifteen 

 new American species of SphcericR, one of the largest genera of 

 fungi, was communicated to the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia, and appeared in vol. v of its Journal. 



Von Schweinitz was absent till near the end of 1825. After 

 his return he resumed his labors as general agent for the Breth- 

 ren ; the charge of the school, however, had been given up some 

 time before. The great work to which he now devoted his atten- 

 tion was a Synopsis of North American Fungi. He had intended 

 this for publication in one of the European journals, but was in- 

 duced to present it, in 1831, to the American Philosophical So- 

 ciety of Philadelphia. In this work three thousand and ninety- 

 eight species, belonging to two hundred and forty-six genera, 

 were described, of which twelve hundred and three species and 

 seven genera had been discovered by the author. If to these dis- 

 coveries we add those made by von Schweinitz in other orders of 



