352 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



to the Boston Society of Natural History his first botanical 

 work, namely, his " Enumeration of Plants growing spon- 

 taneously around Wilmington, North Carolina, with remarks 

 on some New and Obscure Species." This was printed in the 

 first volume and second number of that society's Journal ; 

 but the original impression having been mainly destroyed by 

 fire, important additions and emendations were made in the 

 subsequent reprint. The author's powers of observation and 

 aptitude for research are well shown in this publication, and 

 it is one of the first of the kind in this country in which the 

 names are accented. In his note upon the structure of Dionaea, 

 or Venus's Fly-trap, — a plant found only in the district 

 around Wilmington, — Dr. Curtis corrected the account of 

 the mode of its wonderful action which had prevailed since 

 the time of Linnaeus, and confirmed the statement and infer- 

 ences of the first scientific describer, Ellis, namely, that this 

 plant not only captures insects, but consumes them, envelop- 

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

 solvent. Extending his botanical observations to the western 

 borders of his adopted State, Dr. Curtis was among the first 

 to retrace the steps and rediscover the plants found and pub- 

 lished by the elder Michaux, in the higher Alleghany Moun- 

 tains. But for the last twenty-five years his scientific studies 

 were mainly given to mycology, in which he became a profi- 

 cient, and the highest American authority. His papers upon 

 Fungi, some of which are large, and all are important, were 

 mainly published by the American Philosophical Society, and 

 by the Linnagan Society of London. Several of them are the 

 joint productions of Dr. Curtis and the able English mycolo- 

 gist Mr. Berkley. 



His other published writings mainly are " A Commentary 

 on the Natural History of Dr. Hawks's ' History of North 

 Carolina,' " — a good specimen of his appreciation of exact 

 research and of sharpness of wit without acerbity ; two papers 

 in Silliman's Journal on " New and Rare Plants of the Caro- 

 linas " ; and the botanical portion of the " Geological and Nat- 

 ural History Survey of North Carolina," in two parts ; — the 

 first a popular account of the trees and shrubs, issued in 



