Curtis Gates Lloyd: American mycological narcissist

Abstract

Curtis Gates Lloyd, self-taught but knowledgeable amateur mycologist, wielded inordinate power through his self-supported publications during the period 1885–1925. His idiosyncrasies were exhibited also during his extensive travel and residence in Europe. Two subjects drew his ire to specific workers: 1) Lloyd concluded that the numbers of fungi were limited, especially the mycota of Europe versus North America, so what he considered an inflated number of taxa was unwarranted; and 2) the accepted and "legislated" custom of adding the names of authors following nomenclatural binomials, which Lloyd considered personal 'advertising.' While the number of victims was measured in scores, four recipients of Lloyd's criticisms are selected and summarized: Lee Oras Overholts, George Francis Atkinson, George Edward Massee, and Edward Angus Burt. Key words: criticism, mycological history