Notes and Brief Articles 



165 



A Mycologist in the Making 



An excellent collection of Ohio fungi was recently sent to me 

 for determination by Mr. W. R. Lowater, a beginner in this field, 

 and the letter accompanying it is so good that I will quote a few 

 paragraphs from it to encourage other beginners : 



" For a person like myself, without even a common school 

 education, to attempt unaided the collection of the fungous flora 

 of a certain locality, must seem to a person like yourself as rank 

 impertinence, or at best unwarranted presumption. But I beg 

 of you to suspend judgment. This is not the first great task I 

 have undertaken, nor by any means the greatest. Against all 

 handicaps, I have pitted my usual persistence and self-reliance, 

 supplemented by a love for the chosen task ; and, if the progress 

 I have made in the last two years is any criterion of future ad- 

 vancement, you will have little cause ever to feel ashamed of your 

 protege, — if I may so call myself. 



"Furthermore, the university student has the advantages of 

 botanical libraries, lectures, technical instruction, herbaria, and 

 scientific apparatus, while I have had none of these, and have had 

 to grope my way. Only recently have I been placed in a position 

 to buy literature on the subject, and I am slowly acquiring such 

 apparatus as my limited means will allow. 



"All that I desire is a start. Should you feel constrained to 

 say, 'Don't! The task is too great for you — you are not quali- 

 fied for it,' I will only the more solicit your patience. Should 

 the bungling descriptions I have prepared grate on your ' scien- 

 tific ' nerves, I hope that a consideration of the conditions under 

 which I have worked will prevent you from treating the entire 

 matter with levity." 



Everyone must bow, sooner or later, to determination and de- 

 votion ; and mycology needs earnest workers in all sections of the 

 country. Specimens well collected and preserved are always 

 valuable, whether the collector has studied Latin or not. 



W. A. MURRILL 



