48 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1019 



States Department of Agriculture has decided to 

 make a special study of the methods adopted by 

 Colonel Thorpe. 



A NOTABLE BOTANICAL CABEEE 

 I HAVE before me the " Report of the Botan- 

 ist" to the Eegents of the TJniversity of the 

 State of New York, bearing date of January 

 1, 1868, covering less than two pages, and 

 signed by Charles H. Peck. There is internal 

 evidence that his services began July 1, 1867, 

 the writer reporting what he had accomplished 

 in the half year since that date. A year later 

 the " Report of the Botanist " covered about 

 80 pages and included a short general state- 

 ment followed by (A) List of Species of Which 

 Specimens Have Been Mounted; (S) Plants 

 Collected; (C) List of Species of Which Seeds 

 Have Been Collected; (D) Specimens Obtained 

 by Contribution and Exchange; (E) Edible 

 Fungi; (F) Species Growing Spontaneously 

 in the State and Not Before Reported. This 

 general sequence of topics has been character- 

 istic of the long line of annual reports that 

 followed these made forty-six years ago. 



The latest report in this series was issued 

 September 1, 1913, and was entitled the " Re- 

 port of the State Botanist for 1912." Like its 

 predecessors in recent years it contains an in- 

 troductory general statement followed by (4) 

 Plants Added to the Herbarium; (B) Con- 

 tributors and Their Contributions; (C) Spe- 

 cies not Before Reported; (D) Remarks and 

 Observations; (E) New Species of Extra- 

 limital Fungi; (F) Edible Fungi; (G) Poison- 

 ous Fungi; (H) Crataegus in New York. 

 Four plates (of fungi) and an index complete 

 the pamphlet of one hundred and thirty-seven 

 octavo pages. 



As one looks back over this long series of 

 reports, all from the hand of one man. Dr. 

 Peck, he is powerfully impressed with the 

 thought of what such a life of scientific activ- 

 ity has meant for the development of one 

 branch of knowledge in North America. I 

 was a young teacher just enteriag upon the 

 work of enumerating the plants of Iowa when 

 these reports began to appear, and remember 

 with gratitude the help they gave me, and the 

 still more helpful correspondence which begin- 



ning then has continued to the present. And 

 this is not an individual experience, as may 

 be seen by running over the lists of those who 

 sent their difficult specimens to him for deter- 

 mination, and reported by him under the 

 heading of " Contributors and their Contri- 

 butions." The younger botanists of to-day 

 have grown up with an abundance of books on 

 the fungi, and with competent mycologists in 

 so many of the colleges and universities that 

 it has been as easy for them to learn the names 

 of the fungi as of the flowering plants. They 

 have not found it necessary to send their 

 specimens to a far-away specialist for deter- 

 mination. So we should not expect them to 

 have the same feeling with regard to a career 

 like Dr. Peck's, as those of us have whose 

 work began half a century ago. Yet for their 

 sakes we may well pause here to enumerate 

 some of the principal things in this man's 

 life. 



Charles Horton Peck was bom March 30, 

 1833, at Sand Lake, N. Y. He graduated 

 from Union College in 1859, with the degree 

 of bachelor of arts, and later he was given 

 the degrees of A.M. and D.Sc. by the same 

 institution. For several years (1859 to 1867) 

 he followed the teacher's profession, first in 

 the Sand Lake Collegiate Institute, and later 

 the Albany Classical Institute. Then he began 

 his real life work as botanist for the New 

 York State Museum, at Albany, and this has 

 continued until the present time. 



And now while we write the saddening word 

 comes of such increasing physical infirmities 

 due to advancing years as may well require 

 him to rest from his long years of labor. 

 There are to-day many botanists all over the 

 country who will read this latest report with 

 old-time interest, added to a personal regard 

 for the veteran who has long occupied so 

 prominent a place in the botanical field. It 

 is given to few men to prepare such a report 

 as this latest one at the age of four score 

 years. It is the fortune of few to have 

 erected so notable a monument as he has in 

 the series everywhere known as " Peck's 

 Reports." 



Charles E. Bessey 



The TJisrivERSiTT op Nebkaska 



