ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 1 3 



Prof. Elisha Mitchell and Rev. Dr. L. De Schweinitz had preceded 

 Dr. Curtis in the study of North Carolina plants, the former to 

 abandon it for the more congenial study of geology, the latter to 

 establish a world-wide reputation. 



Dr. Cyrus L. Hunter, of Lincoln county, published a list of such 

 plants as he found in his neighborhood, about the year 1834, a-jd 

 pursued his studies with more or less regularity and zeal since then. 



This scanty review gives an idea of what degree of cultivation the 

 pursuit of botany had reached in North Carolina when Mr. Curtis 

 engaged in it. 



To the south of us the Rev. Dr. Bachman, a diligent naturalist, 

 had made such advance in the study of botany as to publish a cata- 

 logue of the plants growing in the vicinity of Charleston. At the 

 same time, Mr. H. W. Ravenel was also a cultivator of the science. 

 Of both of these gentlemen Mr. Curtis speaks in his diary as having 

 met, while on a botanical tour in South Carolina and Georgia in 

 1835, also Mr. Leitner, of Georgia. 



The number of botanists actually at work were few in number, 

 but those were bound together by the closest ties of scientific and 

 friendly interests. Much of the knowledge of plants was communi- 

 cated by means of long and carefully prepared letters, written with 

 that engaging art which unfortunately threatens to become extinct. 



Mr. Curtis was twenty-two years old when he came to Wilmington 

 a young teacher. His early associations had been favorable for the 

 inculcation of a true scientific spirit. He found absorbing pleasure 

 in the quiet of the fields and forests, and without ever a thought of 

 becoming a scientific botanist, he amassed a wealth of knowledge, 

 and won an exalted position among the botanists of the world. No 

 doubt he looked forward to Saturday with eager expectation, that 

 he might exchange the constrained duties of the school room for the 

 freedom of the woods, and for pleasant intercourse with the old and 

 new floral friends he was to meet. 



If there is such a thing as a scientific instinct, Mr. Curtis possessed 

 it. He was habitually accurate in his studies, and the results were 

 early relied upon by his correspondents. Coming into a new field 

 of botanical study, it was quite natural that he should have directed 

 his attention to the habits of the very local Dionoea muscipula. 

 Saturday after Saturday he would visit the savannahs, and lying 

 at length upon the ground, would watch its peculiarities. The 

 popular description which he gave of it in "Enumeration of Plants 

 around Wilmington," has been repeated for the last fifty years, and 



