MYCOLOGIA 
VoL. VII March, 1915 No. 2 
WILLIAM WIRT CALKINS, AMATEUR 
MYCOLOGIST 
Bruce Fink 
(With Plate 154) 
Mr. William Wirt Calkins was born May 29, 1842, and died 
July 9, 1914. Illinois was his native state and remained his resi- 
dence throughout his life. He prepared for Yale, and began 
teaching as a ward principal in Ottawa, Illinois, in 1862. How- 
ever, he soon resigned, enlisted, and served in the Civil War 
until its close. At the close of the war, he entered business life 
and studied law. His life was devoted mainly to law and to 
literary work. 
Mr. Calkins was a lover of the natural sciences from boyhood. 
His earliest interest was in the study of rocks and fossils, but, 
unfortunately, his large collection was destroyed in the Chicago 
fire of 1871. After this, he studied conchology, and a number of 
papers on this subject appeared. About the same time, he began 
the study of seed-plants, and his collection of about 4000 species is 
now in the herbarium of the University of Notre Dame. He be- 
gan the study of fungi about 1885, and papers on lichens and 
other fungi began to appear at once. Though he collected and 
distributed large numbers of fungi of various kinds collected in 
the South and mainly in Florida, it is apparent both from his 
publications and from conversations and correspondence with 
him that he soon gave up all other fungi for the lichens, which 
remained his main botanical interest until the time of his death. 
[Mycologia for January, 1915 (7: 1-55), was issued February 3, 1915.] 
57 
VOK.. 
botanical 
