Shear-Stevens: Mycological Work of M. A. Curtis 185 



Curtis' first botanical paper was " Enumeration of Plants 

 Growing Spontaneously Around Wilmington, North Carolina, 

 with Remarks on Some New and Obscure Species." In this 

 paper, which was prepared after only two years' residence in 

 North Carolina, the author's powers of observation and aptitude 

 for research are, according to Gray (ii, p. 472), well shown. It 

 is probable that much of Curtis' time while in college and during 

 the three years succeeding his graduation, about which we have 

 no record, was spent in botanical exploration in the Berkshires. 



Mycological Work 



While Curtis never lost his interest in flowering plants, it was 

 in mycology that his most notable work was done and it is as a 

 mycologist that he is chiefly known. That Curtis was early in- 

 terested in cryptogams and in touch with the literature on the 

 subject is evidenced by his first letter to Tuckerman : 



Raleigh, N. C. 

 Feb. i8th, 1839. 



Dear Sir: — 



I was much gratified this day by the rec't of your " Enu- 

 meration of some Lichenes of N. England". Accept my 

 thanks for your favor with an assurance that I am much 

 pleased with every attempt to elucidate the Cryptogamia of 

 our country ... I am the more interested in your attempt 

 because I hope to receive some advantage from it when I 

 come to take up that order more systematically than I have 

 yet done. I have hitherto worked upon it very unsatisfac- 

 torily and much at random, for want of suitable help. The 

 libraries of this State afford me no encouragement and I 

 cannot supply myself with books. I repeat then, that I hope 

 you will go on in your effort. 



I think you would find much scope for interesting inves- 

 tigation among the Algae and Hepatic Mosses. The latter 

 have received considerable attention from Schweinitz but the 

 former have been entirely neglected as far as I know. (1 

 can send you a copy of Schweinitz's Hepaticae if you do not 

 own it.) 



