A Yankee Botanist in the Carolinas. The Reverend Moss Ashley Curtis, D. D. (1808-1872). 1986. 4 figs.242 p.gr8vo.Paper bd.

Preface: Curtis rescued the study of fungi in America from the completeoblivion, into which it had fallen since the death of Schweinitz, andgave mycology its rightful place in botanical study which has continuedsince his death. For twenty-five years Curtis was the authority in American mycology and was recognized as such in this country and abroad.He had the largest collection of cryptogamic plants in America at thetime of his death, although he had made important contributions to thestudy of phanerogams. His fungi herbarium became the foundation for the Farlow Herbarium at Harvard, although Farlow knew nothing of thefungi when he bought it. Obviously Curtis deserved, as Gray said of him,"the gratitude of present and ensuing generations of botanists". Thisbiography is an attempt to see that he receives it from the currentgeneration.