30 
to botany, as the catalogue already referred to was presented to 
the Lyceum in 1817,which was a year before he took his degree. 
Those who are engaged upon the present catalogue, with all the 
aid and materials that the advanced state of the science brings to 
their help, can best appreciate the immense labor that must have 
been required to bring the first catalogue to its remarkable com- 
pleteness. Copies of the catalogue of 1817 are now very rare and 
difficult to procure. As we turn over its pages and read of its au- 
thor’s favorite localities, we find that they are now far “down 
town” and covered by blocks of brick and brown stone. When 
this catalogue was made up, Canal Street was out of town and was 
his station for Draba Caroliniana. Not only the localities but the 
co-workers named in the catalogue have long ago passd away. 
Mitchell, Nuttall, Eddy, Le Conte, Cooper, and others who contri- 
buted materials for the work, all departed before its author. 
William Cooper was the last of these. He was the frequent 
companion of Dr. Torrey’s early botanical excursions, and until 
the last these two old men held for one another a boy-like friend- 
ship as charming as it is rare. 
While yet a student of medicine, Dr. Torrey was one of the 
founders of the New York Lyceum of Natural History. . The in- 
corporators met to adopt their charter—if I remember correctly 
—in one of the rooms of the College of Physicians and Surgeons 
in Barclay Street. The origin of the Lyceum was marked by a 
more festive demonstration than attended that of our Club, for 
upon the adoption of the charter they adjourned to a well known 
public house and celebrated the event in mugs of ale, paid for by 
a general contribution of pennies. : 
During the early career of the Lyceum, Dr. Torrey was one of its 
most active members and contributed to its Annals many of its 
most important papers. For man y years he wasits President. The 
Lyceum, like other associations of its kind, was not exempt from 
the misfortune of party. At one annual meeting, when Dr. Torrey 
desired to decline a reélection, he was induced to accept a nomina- 
tion ; an opposing faction elected its candidate over him. $0 hurt 
was he at what he regarded as an unfair trick that he never again 
went to the meetings of the Lyceum. In this mention of the 
Lyceum it may be well to state that by acting as its curator 4 
young botanist from Western New York was enabled to pursue his 
botanical studies in New York. This young botanist is now known 
as Prof. Asa Gray. : 
After obtaining his medical degree, Dr. Torrey took an office 
the city, but the attractions of botany, mineralogy, entomology 
and chemistry prevented him from applying himself seriously to 
practice. We infer from what he has said that his office was more 
frequently sought by young scientists than by patients. His love 
for scientific pursuits, joined to a dislike to witness human suffer- : 
ing, led him to abandon medicine at the first opportunity. 
Soon after he was graduated, the expedition of Maj. Long w: 
proposed, and Dr. Torrey was offered the position of botanist. 
