56 
JOURNAL OF MYCOLOGY. 
[VOL. II, 
he would wish to recall. He corrected several errors then prevailing in 
regard to it, and confirmed the opinion of Ellis that it consumed the 
insects captured. In the meantime, returning to Boston, he studied 
for the ministry, took orders in the Protestant Episcopal church, at 
Kichmond, Va., in 1835, and with his wife went to Lincolnton, in West¬ 
ern North Carolina, to enter upon mission work in the upper and moun¬ 
tain districts. Here he remained some years, and while faithfully minis¬ 
tering to those in need in the lonely forests or valleys of that region, his 
journeys never failed to bring to him new plant-forms, or old and long- 
lost ones as he retraced, at times, the track of the elder Michaux among 
the higher mountain-valleys and peaks. 
He became thoroughly familiar with this delightful forest region, 
and furnished Dr. Gray, on the occasion of his first visit to it, iu 1841, 
with “ a complete itinerarium.” 
The active intellectual cast of the man is shown in his reaching out 
into new fields, early in his botanical career ; for he soon began to accu¬ 
mulate facts on the great and profound questions of geographical distri¬ 
bution of plants, and to interest himself in the lower cryptogams. 
His professional work called him to Raleigh, to Washington, Beau¬ 
fort Co., to Hillsborough, to Society Hill, S. C.,—where he remained 
nine years; back again to Hillsborough, N. C., in 1856, where he 
remained till his death, April 10th, 1872. 
Schweinitz’ death occurred in 1834, or the year Dr. Curtis published 
his '' Plants about Wilmington. ” Unquestionably the great resume 
of the former’s work in fungi, his ‘‘ Synopsis Eungorum” (1831), had 
early attracted the attention of the young clergyman, whose heart had 
become fixed on botany as an avocation, but, apparently, it was not until 
ten years after Schweinitz’ death that he began seriously to take up the 
lines laid down by his predecessor. In 1846, he opened correspondence 
with Mr. Ravenel, of South Carolina, in 1848, with Rev. M. J. Berkely, 
of England, and, during the latter year, he published his first ‘‘ Contri¬ 
bution TO THE Myxology' OF NoRTH AMERICA,” ill the American 
Journal of Science, Vol. 56, p. 349 (1848). He says at this time that, since 
the death of the late Mr. Lea, of Ohio, “ I do not know of any American 
botanist who is giving this obscure but interesting order any special at¬ 
tention except H. W. Ravenel, Esq., of South Carolina, and myself.” 
To Dr. Curtis, therefore, all American collections of Eungi made after 
this date were referred, as a nde. Many of the species described by him 
were, however, referred to his lifelong friend. Dr. Berkely, for final 
judgment, and appeared under the joint authorship of Berk. & Curtis.” 
This work he pursued unremittingly, often at the expense of his health, 
which was never very robust. After a time, he overcame, through the 
pursuasion of Mr. Berkeley, his prejudice against fungi as food, and dur¬ 
ing the latter part of his life ascertained by personal testing that 111 
species of the fleshy fungi of North Carolina (indicated in his catalogue 
by italics ) were eatable, estimating at least forty or flfty of the eatable 
species to occur in the mountain regions, but still uncollected by him. 
