36 



Mycologia 



Lake Collegiate Institute. He entered Union^Cqllege in the fall 

 of 1855, and received the degree of bachelor of arts in 1859. So 

 high was his standing that he was one of three members of his 

 class to be awarded the Nott Prize Scholarship, an honor given 

 only to those who passed a special thorough and extended exami- 

 nation. While at Union, he received his botanical instruction 

 from Prof. Jonathan Pearson ; and, in place of athletics, he made 

 botanical excursions. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa 

 Literary Society of Union College. 



Just before graduation. Dr. Peck accepted a position as teacher 

 in classics, mathematics, and botany in the Sand Lake Collegiate 

 Institute, which position he held for about three years. He mar- 

 ried Mary Catherine Sliter, the daughter of Calvin and Anna 

 Maria Sliter, of Snyders Corners, Rensselaer County, April 10, 

 1861. He had two sons: Harry Sliter, born 1863, and Charles 

 Albert, born 1870. Mrs. Peck died February 26, 1912. 



Soon after his marriage, he was one day putting a stick of 

 wood in the stove and noticed a moss upon it. He became inter- 

 ested, and went to Brooklyn, where he met Prof. Alphonse Wood 

 and was advised to get Sullivant's work on mosses, which appeared 

 in the earlier editions of Gray's Manual. Equipped with the 

 Manual and a $12.00 microscope, he returned home and began 

 the study of bryology independent of a teacher or collection. He 

 would search for the name of a moss for hours, if necessary, 

 reading each description as he went along until he found the one 

 that fitted his specimen. 



Afterwards, while teaching in Albany, he presented his collec- 

 tion to the State ; and it was there seen by Judge Geo. W. Clinton, 

 of Buffalo, one of the regents, who was finally instrumental in 

 securing Dr. Peck's appointment in the State Cabinet of Natural 

 History. The " Catalogue of Mosses presented to the State of 

 New York by Charles H. Peck " is published in Ann. Rep. State 

 Cab. Nat. Hist, 18: 193-194. 1865. He states that "of the 144 

 species named . . . 104 were found in the town of Sand Lake." 



In 1862 he received the degree of master of arts from Union ; 

 and, in the same year, he was instructor in the classical depart- 

 ment of the State Street High School at Albany, a private school 

 for boys under the control and principalship of Levi Cass. Dr. 



