Pioneer Of Science
In The South
A HMiiarkablr rector wlm first pn»>
4'laimod Hu* unique qualify of North
Carolina's climate, soil and forests.
alihough he ate freely of forty spe¬
cies."
During the Civil War. Curtis opti¬
mistically suggested that it might be
possible to "maintain a regiment of
soldiers five months of the year upon
mushrooms alone."
Five North American mushrooms
today bear the second name Curiisii —
coupled with such exotic first namcsas
Ceriomyces. (I anode r mu. Le minus.
Favolus. and Lycoperdon.
By llAIU.I I IUli: SCHUMANN
International Collaboration
Close to the steep, irregular back
steps of St. Matthews Episcopal
Church (
1825»
in historic Hillsborough
is a family grave plot of modest Victo-
rian-cra monuments.
Next to the plot, lucked into the
azalea bushes, is a modern bronze
plaque marking the grave of Moses
Ashley Curtis, "a world authority on
fungi: in 1862 his published list of 4800
North Carolina plants was the largest
North American regional list."
Curtis, a country rector, was a val¬
ued member of a network of botanical
friendships organized by Harvard bi¬
ologist Asa Gray and his scientific
colleague John Torrey. This network
provided the real institutional struc¬
ture of the science in America during
the 1850s. During that century, botany
was the aristocratic science, the sci¬
ence of great expectation, and a matter
of national pride.
"The botanical network in the South
was of particular interest, because of
the rapid development of a distinctive
sectional consciousness." A. Hunter
Dupree, historian of science, wrote in
a major biography of Asa Gray.
"Gray's interest in the southern Ap¬
palachians was of course longstanding
and he had old friends there . . .
(among them» Curtis in North and
South Carolina. . . . Obscure and often
poor, struggling against rural isolation
and lack of books and equipment,
these gallant men were representatives
of science in the South."
"Full of Toadstools"
Gray himself called Moses Ashley
Curtis "the highest American author-
Mote» Ashley Curtis lies in the tranquil churchyard
of St. Motthews Episcopal Church, in historic Hills¬
borough, "still at the heod of his spiritual flock".
Nearby is the plot where the Regulators were
honged prior to the Revolution. (Archives and His¬
tory photo by Joann S. Boker)
ity" on fungi, w hile another associate
said that Curtis's "hands were full of
toadstools."
Curtis had grown tip with the com¬
mon prejudices against mushrooms,
but by the late 1830s he had begun his
specialization in fungi. By 1855 he was
an avid mycologist, and by 1869 "he
could safely say that he had eaten a
greater variety of mushrooms than
anyone on the American continent."
Thomas Wood reported in 1885 to the
Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society.
"From the beginning of his experi¬
ments." Wood continued, "he exer¬
cised great caution even with the
species long recognized as safe and
wholesome. In every case he began
only with a single mouthful. No effect
following, he made a second essay
upon two or three mouthfuls, and so on
gradually until he made a full meal of
them. Fortunately he did not blunder
upon any kind that was mischievous.
Moses Ashley Curtis was known in
the international scientific community
as well as in America and he surely
received the most cosmopolitan mail
that passed through the Hillsborough
post office. He supplied plants to
major American herbaria and to va¬
rious European institutions, among
them the British Museum and Kew-
Gardens.
A botanist at Kew observed that it
was a pity that Curtis was "wasting his
time" with religion.
Curtis lived during an age w hen U.S.
scientific expeditions were discover¬
ing the natural world and sending home
such a volume of plants for analysis
that they occupied the American sci¬
entific community for forty years. He
often received parcels of specimens to
study, identify, and reoort on — plants
of the Pacific, of Venezuela, and of
Cuba.
Another of his international friend¬
ships was with the Rev. Miles Joseph
Berkeley in England, who — in
THE STATE. February 1982
11
