Shear-Stevens: Mycological Work of M. A. Curtis 191 



(i). Some idea of the extent of Curtis' work is gained from the 

 sentence with which Berkeley concludes the introductory para- 

 graph to the first of the series of " Notices of North American 

 Fungi," 'which appeared in Grevillea (i, p. 33). 



" Cyphers following the descriptive characters are those of 

 an enormous mass of Fungi amounting to more than 6,000 

 numbers forwarded to me from time to time by the late 

 Doctor Curtis." 



Berkeley's letters sent to Curtis have been lost or destroyed, 

 since according to the Curtis heirs, none are to be found among 

 his correspondence and Dr. Farlow informs the writers that they 

 are not with the Curtis collection of fungi at Harvard. The 

 Berkeley correspondence which is in the British Museum con- 

 tains, however, many letters from Curtis, the first of which, ac- 

 cording to information kindly furnished by Miss Elsie M. Wake- 

 field of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is dated April 17, 1846, 

 and the last, March 12, 1872. With Berkeley's Herbarium at 

 Kew are two small volumes containing the manuscript lists with 

 notes and comments on the Carolina fungi'^ which Curtis sent to 

 Berkeley with the specimens. A copy of this manuscript is in the 

 library of the New York Botanical Garden. With the Curtis 

 ■collections at Harvard are lists of several thousand numbers of 

 the specimens sent to Berkeley with the corresponding numbers 

 of the original collections. These are apparently copies which 

 Curtis kept for his own reference. 



To publish a complete bibliography of Berkeley and Curtis' 

 work woufd be needless duplication of the excellent list given by 

 Farlow and Trelease (9). It should be noted, however, that the 

 series of papers under the title of " North American Fungi," be- 

 ginning in 1872, were published by Mr. Berkeley after Curtis' 

 'death. These contained many species attributed to Berkeley and 

 Curtis, based in part on manuscript notes furnished by Curtis 

 with the collections. This series alone lists 1,005 species of Amer- 

 ican fungi. Curtis' contribution to this joint work was much 

 more than that of a mere collection, as is plainly evidenced by the 

 fact that the specimens he sent Berkeley were accompanied by 



8 Personal letter from Miss Wakefield dated Nov. 5, 1916. 



