Charles Horton Peck

Charles Horton Peck (1833 - 1917)

Image of Charles Horton Peck from William Ashbrook Kellerman (1904 - 1907) Ohio Mycological Bulletin

Back to Author Index

Biography
Sources
Further Sources
Selected publications
Species
Genera

Biography

1833 March 30, born at Sand Lake, New York

attends local school, in a log cabin

1851 enrolls at Albany State Normal School, greatly intrigued by a class on botany

1852 graduates from Albany State Normal School, works on his father's farm

further education at Sand Lake Collegiate Institute (a high school)

1855 enrolls at Union College (majors in Classics)

1859 graduates, teaches Latin, Greek, math, and botany at Sand Lake Collegiate Institute

1861 marries Mary C. Sliter

1862 teaches mathematics and classics at the Classical Institute of Albany

1867 appointed to the New York State Cabinet of Natural History (!)

Photo of Boletus bicolor var. bicolor by John Denk

numerous publications, often of new species

1883 appointed State Botanist

1912 Mary dies

1913 Pecks resigns his position

1917 dies in Albany

Image of Chroogomphus vinicolor from A. M. Hussey (1847 - 1855) Illustrations of British mycology

According to Humphrey, Governor Clinton was also a botanist, and had a strong commitment to promoting natural history education through the state natural history museum and his cabinet of natural history. He met Peck while Peck was teaching school in Albany, and the rest is a wonderful example of how productive public officials can be for science. This seems to be mistaken, as DeWitt Clinton died in 1828, long before he could have rendered Peck any assistance. I think the man who encouraged Peck must have been George W. Clinton, the governor's son. How Peck actually got the job of state botanist thus remains uncertain (as far as I'm concerned), although I'm sure that George W. was still well-connected.

Image of Charles Horton Peck from Curtis Gates Lloyd (1898 - 1925) Mycological Notes

Depending on who you read, Peck described 2500-3000 new species, describing them in either the Bulletin of the State Museum, or its Annual Report. In addition to his numerous individual descriptions, he also monographed the boletes, tooth fungi, and gilled fungi for all of North America.

In the late 1870s and early 1880s, Peck's species came under fire from British mycologists, as they had no way of getting hold of the NY State bulletins (in which he published his descriptions), and Peck did not lend out specimens from the NY state herbarium. In a set of letters to Grevillea, 1877-1878, they voiced concerns of this nature with Peck as a prime example, and articulated several of the issues that have led to our present requirements of valid and effective publication of names. English quotes several letters from Cooke (p. 226-227) bitterly complaining about the impossibility of obtaining either Peck's publications or samples of his specimens. Peck seems to have paid no attention whatsoever to these complaints, and I assume that other American mycologists (such as Farlow, the recipient of the letters that English quotes) eventually re-described his species in works that were available to Europeans (and ordinary Americans).
Back to top

Sources

Harry Baker Humphrey (1961) Makers of North American Botany

Mary P. English (1987) Mordecai Cubitt Cooke, Victorian Naturalist, Mycologist, Teacher & Eccentric

Joseph F. Ammirati & Clark Ovrebo (1979) "Type studies: some Cortinarius and Tricholoma species described by Charles Horton Peck" in Mycotaxon

Back to top

Further Sources

George Francis Atkinson (1918) "Charles Horton Peck" in Botanical Gazette

Charles Edwin Bessey (1914) "A Notable Botanical Carreer" in Science N. series

Back to top

Selected Publications

Charles Horton Peck"New York species of Omphalia" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York

Charles Horton Peck (1872) "Boletus bicolor article" in Annual Report of the New York State Museum 24 p. 78

Charles Horton Peck (1878) "Boletus ornatipes article" in Annual Report of the New York State Museum 29 p. 67

Charles Horton Peck (1879) "New York species of Lycoperdon" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 32 pp. 58 - 72

Charles Horton Peck (1879) "Boletus sensibilis article" in Annual Report of the New York State Museum 32 p. 33

Charles Horton Peck (1880) "New York species of Amanita" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 33 pp. 38 - 49

Charles Horton Peck (1882) "New York species of Lepiota" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 35 pp. 150 - 164

Charles Horton Peck (1883) "New York species of Psalliota" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 36 pp. 41 - 49

The modern name for the genus Psalliota is Agaricus

Charles Horton Peck (1884) "New York species of Pluteus" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 38 pp. 133 - 138

Charles Horton Peck (1884) "New York species of Lactarius" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 38 pp. 111 - 133

Charles Horton Peck (1885) "New York species of Pleurotus, Claudopus and Crepidotus" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 39 pp. 58 - 73

Claudopus is a pink-spored genus whose species, by now, have probably been transferred to Clitopilus or Entoloma (sensu lato)

Charles Horton Peck (1887) "Craterellus" in Bulletin of the 2 pp. 44 - 48

Charles Horton Peck (1887) "Cantharellus" in Bulletin of the 2 pp. 34 - 43

Charles Horton Peck (1889) "Strobilomyces" in Bulletin of the 8 pp. 158 - 159

Charles Horton Peck (1889) "Boletinus" in Bulletin of the 2:8 pp. 74 - 80

Charles Horton Peck (1889) "Boleti of the United States" in Bulletin of the 2:8 pp. 74 - 80

Charles Horton Peck (1889) "New York species of Clitopilus" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 42 pp. 39 - 46

At the time, the standard concept of the genus included many mushrooms that we now place in Entoloma.

Charles Horton Peck (1890) "New York species of Armillaria" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 43 pp. 40 - 45

Armillaria is here used in its older sense of Tricholomas with rings, as well as the current sense of honey mushrooms.

Charles Horton Peck (1891) "New York species of Tricholoma" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 44 pp. 38 - 64

Charles Horton Peck (1893) "New York species of Pluteolus" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 46 pp. 58 - 61

Charles Horton Peck (1893) "New York species of Galera" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 46 pp. 61 - 69

Charles Horton Peck (1896) "New York species of Collybia" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 49 pp. 32 - 55

Charles Horton Peck (1897) "New York species of Flammula" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 50 pp. 133 - 142

Charles Horton Peck (1906) "New York species of Russula" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 116 pp. 67 - 117

I believe that this is the same paper as the 1907 one with the same name, but I don't know which citation is correct.

Charles Horton Peck (1907) "New York species of Russula" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 60 pp. 67 - 98

I believe that this is the same paper as the 1907 one with the same name, but I don't know which citation is correct.

The genus Psathyra (Fries) Kummer was synonymized with Psathyrella by Singer. I wonder why Peck found so few of them.

Charles Horton Peck (1912) "New York species of Laccaria" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 65 pp. 90 - 93

Charles Horton Peck (1912) "New York species of Psilocybe" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 65 pp. 94 - 105

Charles Horton Peck (1912) "New York species of Clitocybe" in Reports of the State Botanist of New York 65 pp. 59 - 89

Back to top

Species

Agaricus abruptibulbus Peck
Agaricus micromegethus Peck
Agaricus placomyces Peck
Agaricus rodmanii Peck
Agaricus silvicola (Vittadini) Peck
Agaricus subrufescens Peck
Agrocybe acericola (Peck) Singer
Agrocybe firma (Peck) Singer
Albatrellus caeruloporus (Peck) Pouzar
Amanita abrupta Peck
Amanita crenulata Peck
Amanita frostiana (Peck) Saccardo
Amanita pantherina var. multisquamosa (Peck) D. T. Jenkins
Amanita parcivolvata (Peck) E. J. Gilbert
Amanita russuloides (Peck) Saccardo
Amanita volvata (Peck) Lloyd
Armillaria decorosa Peck
Baeospora myriadophylla (Peck) Singer
Bolbitius coprophilus (Peck) Hongo
Boletus bicolor var. bicolor Peck
Boletus ornatipes Peck
Boletus sensibilis Peck
Boletus subglabripes Peck
Boletus subvelutipes Peck
Cantharellus minor Peck
Christiansenia mycetophila (Peck) Sunhede & Ginns
Chroogomphus flavipes (Peck) O. K. Miller
Chroogomphus vinicolor (Peck) O. K. Miller
Clitocybe ectypoides (Peck) Saccardo
Clitocybe robusta Peck
Clitocybe tarda Peck
Clitocybula familia (Peck) Singer
Coprinus quadrifidus Peck
Coprinus variegatus Peck
Cortinarius corrugatus Peck
Cortinarius croceifolius Peck
Cortinarius lilacinus Peck
Cortinarius pulchrifolius Peck
Crepidotus herbarum (Peck) Saccardo
Cryptoporus volvatus (Peck) C. L. Shear
Entoloma salmoneum (Peck) Saccardo
Entoloma strictius (Peck) Saccardo
Galerina autumnalis (Peck) Singer & A. H. Smith
Gomphidius nigricans Peck
Gymnopilus aeruginosus (Peck) Singer
Gymnopilus luteofolius (Peck) Singer
Gymnopilus luteus (Peck) Hesler
Hygrophorus borealis Peck
Hygrophorus cuspidatus Peck
Hygrophorus marginatus var. concolor Peck
Hygrophorus marginatus var. marginatus Peck
Hygrophorus speciosus Peck
Hygrophorus subviolaceus Peck
Inocybe albodisca Peck
Inocybe fuscodisca (Peck) Massee
Inocybe subochracea (Peck) Earle
Laccaria ochropurpurea (Berkeley) Peck
Laccaria trullisata (Ellis) Peck
Lactarius aquifluus Peck
Lactarius atroviridis Peck
Lactarius chelidonium Peck
Lactarius corrugis Peck
Lactarius deceptivus Peck
Lactarius fumosus Peck
Lactarius gerardii Peck
Lactarius luteolus Peck
Lactarius maculatus Peck
Lactarius mutabilis Peck
Lactarius rufus Peck
Lactarius sordidus Peck
Lactarius subvellereus Peck
Lepiota americana Peck
Lepiota naucinoides Peck
Lepiota rubrotincta Peck
Leucopaxillus albissimus (Peck) Singer
Leucopaxillus laterarius (Peck) Singer & A. H. Smith
Leucopaxillus tricolor (Peck) R. Kühner
Leucopholiota decorosa (Peck) O. K. Miller , Volk & A. E. Bessette
Marasmius strictipes (Peck) Singer
Melanoleuca alboflavida (Peck) Murrill
Morchella angusticeps Peck
Nolanea salmonea Peck
Nolanea stricta Peck
Omphalina ectypoides (Peck) H. E. Bigelow
Paragyrodon sphaerosporus (Peck) Singer
Pholiota albocrenulata (Peck) Saccardo
Pholiota highlandensis (Peck) Hesler & A. H. Smith
Pholiota squarrosoides (Peck) Saccardo
Pleurotus elongatipes Peck
Pluteus admirabilis (Peck) Peck
Pluteus tomentosulus Peck
Psathyrella conissans (Peck) A. H. Smith
Psathyrella delineata (Peck) A. H. Smith
Resinomycena rhododendri (Peck) Singer & Redhead
Russula brevipes var. brevipes Peck
Russula crustosa Peck
Russula earlei Peck
Russula flaviceps Peck
Russula foetentula Peck
Russula mariae Peck
Russula modesta Peck
Russula pectinatoides Peck
Russula pulverulenta Peck
Russula rugulosa Peck
Russula simillima Peck
Russula uncialis Peck
Russula variata Banning in Peck
Russula ventricosipes Peck
Suillus americanus (Peck) Snell
Suillus brevipes (Peck) C. E. O. Kuntze
Suillus pictus (Peck) C. E. O. Kuntze
Tricholomopsis formosa (Peck) Singer
Tylopilus eximius (Peck) Singer
Tylopilus indecisus (Peck) Murrill
Xerula furfuracea (Peck) Redhead, Shoemaker & Ginns

Back to top

Genera

Cryptoporus (Peck) C. L. Shear
Massospora Peck
Underwoodia Peck

Back to top

Glossary
Mushrooms
People
Newsletter
Events