1887. | BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 195 
It is doubtful whether any other American botanist has ever covered so 
wide a range of plants. He not only studied critically the phenogams 
7 of South Carolina, but he collected and studied, as far as it was possible 
; at that time and in a region remote from large libraries, mosses, lichens, 
: alge and fungi. But he was not an ordinary collector, heaping up rough 
material to be ged for specimens to be counted rather than studied. 
d He was a most accurate observer, and always noted the habits and pecul- 
| larities of what he collected. He discovered a surprisingly large num- 
ber of new species of cryptogams, besides a few new phenogams. Prob- 
ably no person had so complete a knowledge of the eryptogamic flora of 
the southern states as he, and, for a long time, he and his friend, the late 
Rev. M. A. Curtis, of North Carolina, were practically the only Ameri- 
cans who knew specifically the fungi of the United States. Their inter- 
est in fangi brought them into correspondence with Berkeley, Montague, 
Fries and other leading mycologists of Europe of that time, and the 
name of Ravenel became well known abroad as well as at home. 
His deafness made it impossible for him to accept any position which 
involved class instruction, and he was too modest to seek public prefer- 
ment. The only occasion on which he accepted a government appoint- 
ment was in 1869, when he was appointed botanist to the commission 
which, under Prof. Gamgee, was sent to Texas to investigate the cattle 
disease, and on his return he published a short report on the fungi of 
that state. At one time he was the agricultural editor of the Weekly News 
and Courier, and at the time of his death he held the position of botanist 
Works includes several valuable papers. They all show thoroughness 
and an active mind which went beyond mere descriptions and inquired 
into causes as well as results. The best known of his works is the 
“Fungi Caroliniani Exsiccati,” in five volumes, the first of which ap- 
peared in 1853, and the last in 1860. This is the first published series of 
series in connection with the English mycologist, M. C. Cooke, under the 
ttle “Fungi Americani Exsiccati,” of which eight centuries appeared 
series were collected prin- 
Apart from the publica- 
his contribu- 
us notes 
