WILLIAM HERBST 191 



County, Pennsylvania, and gave all his spare 

 time to studying the flora of the state, in later 

 years specializing in fungi, especially the Basidi- 

 omycetes. His biographer says, " for a number 

 of years he occupied the chair of botany at Muhl- 

 enberg College, Pennsylvania," but -wt v^^ould 

 also fain know how he fared and did when not 

 in the chair, of some of his pleasures in finding 

 new plants, and of his friendship with Prof. C. 

 H. Peck, the botanist, who on August 25, 1894, 

 writes to him : " That was a splendid fungus you 

 sent me. It is an undescribed species of Spa- 

 rassis. I propose to name it, with your consent, 



Sparassis Herbstii, sp. nov Thanks for 



your kind offer to send me some more specimens 

 of Queletia mirabilis, Fr. So far you are the 

 only one to find it in this country." 



Herbst found time to write a tolerably large 

 illustrated volume (229 pp.) on tht Fungal Flora 

 of the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, 1899, and 

 when he died, in December, 1907, his widow 

 gave all his specimens to the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia. 



Personal Communication from Caroline Herbst. 

 The Botanists of Philadelphia. J. W. Harshberger. 



15 



