192 



Mycologia 



manuscript lists of the specimens sent, together with notes and 

 comments. It is therefore appropriate that even after Curtis' 

 death, Berkeley published many of the new species under their 

 joint authorship. 



Study of the Schweinitz Collection 



Perhaps the most important single piece of work undertaken 

 jointly by Berkeley and Curtis was their study of the Schweinitz 

 collection of fungi. Through the courtesy of Miss E. M. Wake- 

 field in examining Curtis' letters to Berkeley now preserved at 

 the British Museum, the writers were able to pubHsh some ac- 

 count (i8, p. 334-7) of the way in which this work was done. 

 From this, it appears that Curtis spent 17 days, during the sum- 

 mer of 185 1, in the study of the fungi in the Schweinitz Her- 

 barium. There is a letter to Tuckerman dated " Phila. July 22nd, 

 '51," which may very probably have been written during the time 

 Curtis was engaged in this work. On the promise, apparently, of 

 additional specimens for the herbarium (19, p. 555), (18, p. 

 335) and of "a critical review of the fungi" (18, p. 336), he 

 was permitted to take a specimen from the collection when there 

 were more than two of any species. Whenever the fragment 

 which he took from the Schweinitz herbarium was large enough 

 he divided it and sent a part to Berkeley, also in some cases a por- 

 tion to Fries. Curtis was thus able to send to Berkeley nearly 

 fifteen hundred specimens to keep, and later over three hundred 

 which were to be returned when done with, as they could not be 

 divided. 



Of the promised " critical review " only one installment was 

 published, this appeared in July, 1856, when as stated in the intro- 

 duction about one fourth of the species " had been reviewed. 

 Much more of the material must have been critically examined 

 later, however, as in Berkeley's personal copy of Schweinitz 

 " Synopsis Fungorum in America Boreali " now in the library of 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture (see 18, p. 338) species are 

 checked and sketches of spores occur throughout the book. Dr. 

 Farlow writes in a personal letter dated Nov. 18, 191 7, that in 

 Curtis' copy of Schweinitz work, now in his possession, many of 



