COLLECTIONS OF ALABAMA FUNGI. 149 



1864 in that part of the Tennessee Valley and t)f the mountain region 

 of Alabama embracing Lawrence, Winston, and Walker counties. 

 Peters submitted his collections to Curtis and also partly to Eavenel. 

 The descriptions of his new species were published in the first to the 

 third volumes of Grevillea (1872 to 1876) under the "Notice of North 

 American Fungi," by Berkeley and Curtis, and a smaller number were 

 issued in Eavenel's Fungi Caroliniani Exsiccati (1852 to 1860). In 

 his manuscript catalogue of Alabama fungi, left, with his collection, to 

 the University of Alabama, Peters enumerated a little over 500 species 

 under 122 genera, most of them contained in three quarto volumes. 

 These specimens are still in a fair state of preservation. 



Early in the sixties G. A. Beaumont, an enthusiastic young botanist, 

 joined Peters in the exploration of the cryptogamic flora of the State, 

 but working in his own surroundings. After a short stay in Lawrence 

 County, Beaumont collected in southeastern Alabama near Brooklyn, 

 in Conecuh County, and Troy, in Pike County. His specimens were 

 also forwarded to Mr. Curtis and were duly noticed in the publications 

 of the authors named above. 



After a long lapse of years the investigation of the mycological flora 

 of the State was most actively resumed by Prof. George F. Atkinson 

 (Cornell University, New York), chiefly during the years 1889 to 

 1892, while in charge of the biological department of the Polytechnic 

 Institute and the State Agricultural Experiment Station at Auburn, 

 assisted by some of his graduate students, principally B. M. Duggar, 

 1889-90, and C. L. Newman, 18uO-91. The field work was chiefly con- 

 fined to Lee County, and the results of his labors were published in the 

 Bulletin of the Cornell University, vol. 3, No. 1, Ithaca, N. Y., June, 

 1897. In this Bulletin 644 species under 201 genera are enumerated, 

 of which three genera and 61 species are described as new. 



Prof. L. M. Underwood, while in connection with the biological depart- 

 ment of the Polytechnic Institute (1895-96), and Prof. F. S. Earle, of 

 the horticultural department, and since 1896 in the biological depart- 

 ment of the same institution, continued with great zeal the labors of 

 their predecessors in the field of Southern mycology. Their explora- 

 tions were principally confined to the vicinity of the Institute. Pro- 

 fessor Underwood made a trip to the mountain region of the State from 

 its eastern limit westward to the section first explored by Peters. 

 Professor Earle made, occasionally, some collections in Mobile County. 

 His assistants in field work, Prof. C. F. Baker and Mr. Benton of the 

 Alabama Experiment Station, are mentioned. 



In 1897 appeared the Preliminary List of the known species of 

 Alabama Fungi, by L. M. Underwood and F. S. Earle, as Bulletin No. 80 

 of the Alabama Experiment Station at Auburn. In this publication, 

 as stated by the authors, are contained all the Alabama species referred 

 to by Berkeley, all contained in the Peters collection, and those con- 

 tributed by Peters and Beaumont to KavenePs Exsiccati; besides these, 



