1918} BRIEFER ARTICLES 107° 
later years of his activity considerable time was given to study and col- 
lecting the Crataegi of the state for the State Herbarium. 
Dr. PEcK possessed a very critical and analytical mind. Many of 
his descriptions of new species are marvels of accuracy and clearness. 
On the two occasions when I had the opportunity of working with him in 
the field I was impressed by these qualities manifested in a marked 
degree. Each day he made a careful study of his collections, with 
full notes and often accompanied by colored drawings, from which were 
selected those for color reproduction in his reports. The photograph 
presented here, showing him at work, was made by the writer in his room 
at the hotel in Port Jefferson in 1904. On the table are some of the 
fungi, his water color blocks, and a color chart made by himself which he 
used for many years. Perhaps in some respects he was, at times, too 
critical, which may have led him to distinguish as different species 
environmental and growth forms of the same species, but in this respect 
he did not differ from most other taxonomists. This faculty, however, 
may be regarded as a virtue compared with the careless “lumping” so 
characteristic of some students who have taken a plunge into mono- 
graphic work in the fungi without an adequate background of critical 
Studies of the morphology and structure of the fleshy fungi in a fresh 
state. That a number of European species have been described by 
Peck (and others) as new is not surprising when we consider the poor 
and meager descriptions which appeared in the earlier, and some modern, 
European works on mycology. 
This leads the writer to mention some of the other difficulties under 
which Dr. Peck labored. There has been a lamentable lack of proper 
equipment in apparatus, exsiccati, and of assistance in the Botanical 
Division of the State Museum, not to mention the very inadequate 
rooms and space which were assigned to the State Botanist. The latter 
feature has been vastly improved in the botanical quarters in the new 
Education Building, although even now there is no room suitably 
lighted for microscopic work. Dr. Peck, through nearly all the 48 years 
of his official connection with the Museum, worked single-handed and 
alone, carrying on his vast correspondence by hand, and caring as best 
he could for the large number of specimens collected by himself and 
communicated by his correspondents. Partly for this reason, and 
partly due to the fact that when the botanist’s quarters were moved to 
the attic of the Capitol Building, most of the collections, for want 
of room, were bundled up and almost inaccessible; the collections 
