ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 1 5 



against a spider's web because a fly is drowned in a honey pot, or 

 against a steel trap, because some poor animal has lost its life in a 

 cider barrel." 



"In his note upon the structure of Diona^a, or Venus Fly-Trap, a 

 plant found only in the district around Wilmington," says Dr. Asa 

 Gray, "Dr. Curtis corrected the account of the mode of its wonderful 

 action that had prevailed since the time of Linnaeus, and confirmed 

 the statement and inferences of the first scientific describer, EUis, 

 namely, that his plant not only captures insects, but consumes them, 

 enveloping them in a mucilaginous fluid which appears to act as a 

 solvent." 



During the preparation of his first little work he returned to 

 Boston and commenced his studies for the ministry, 1833-34, with 

 the Rev. William Croswell, While there he commenced a corres- 

 pondence with Dr. Torrey, who aided him in determining species. 

 His acquaintance with Dr. Gray commenced later, but became much 

 more intimate. 



While on his way to Boston, he formed the acquaintance of Dr. 

 Darlington, of Westchester, Pa., and he afterwards became a valued 

 friend and a helper so long as he needed one. 



He married Miss Mary DeRosset, daughter of the elder Dr. A. J. 

 DeRosset, of Wilmington December 3d, 1834. 



He returned to the South in the latter part of 1834, continued his 

 studies with the Rev. Dr. R. B. Drane, and was ordained to the 

 ministry of the Episcopal church by Bishop Moore, of Virginia, in 

 1835. He immediately entered upon mission work in Western North 

 Carolina from Charlotte to the mountain country as far as Mor- 

 ganton, with his residence in Lincolnton. It was while pursuing 

 his work as a missionary that he took advantage of his journeying 

 in the solitary woods to pursue his botanical researches. Most of 

 his traveling was done in a " sulky," which was so arranged that his 

 portfolio was under the cushion. As he came across specimens by 

 the way, he would collect them and place them in his portfolio, and 

 so by the end of his journey he had secured a number of ready 

 pressed plants for future study, or for mounting permanently in his 

 herbarium. He left the mountain section at the end of 1836, and 

 was engaged as a teacher in the Episcopal school in Raleigh from 

 the beginning of 1837 to May 1839. 



The summer of 1839 he spent in the mountain country for health 

 chiefly, though always carrying on his botanical explorations, and 

 went through that region to the extreme west and southwest of the 

 State, 



