bs 34 
‘The question why was not Torrey and Gray’s Flora completed, 
has often been asked by those not familiar with the rapid progress 
of botanical discovery. Such will find an answer in the words I 
have quoted. By the time the first volume of the Flora was 
finished, new materials belonging to the orders contained in that 
volume demanded a large appendix, and a few years later new dis- 
coveries were so numerous that it was impossible for the work to 
keep pace with them. Its authors pursued the best course; instead 
of giving their time to the completion of the Flora and allowing 
the new materials to pass—as they inevitably would have done— 
into the hands of European botanists, they turned their attention 
to studying and recording them. Now these discoveries of Amer- 
ican plants are mainly recorded by American botanists in Ameri 
can publications, and to secure this result it was well that the 
Flora was suspended. In this matter—of securing the new plants 
—both Doctors Torrey and Gray worked, sometimes together, 
_oftener independently, but always with the fullest cooperation, 
The result has been a series of memoirs unequalled in scientific 
value by any that have been produced in recent botanical literature. 
While my object is to record the botanical work of Dr, Torrey, I 
would not forget that others have labored in the same field. Engel- 
mann, Durand, Newberry, Cooper, Wood, Brewer, Watson, and 
others whose names I do not now recall, have added to the rich 
stores of materials for that Flora of North America which we all hope 
for, Is this much-desired work within the probabilities of the near 
future? In the address just quoted, Dr. Gray feelingly says: “It 
remains to be seen whether his surviving associate of nearl forty 
years will be able to complete the edifice, To do this will be not — 
only to supply the most pressing want of the science, but to raise 
the most fitting monument to his memory.” It may not be Im- 
proper to add here that Dr. Gray has made arrangements which 
will relieve him from much of his labor as professor, and is making 
every effort to devote the coming years to this most important work. 
Of the memoirs on North American Botany in whole or in part 
by Dr. Torrey I gave a list in the address at the festival in cele- 
bration of the semi-centennial of his first botanical publication. 
As a mere matter of record, I briefly recapitulate what was there 
presented. In chronological order we find that Dr. Torrey published 
m: 
1843, Botany of Nicollet’s Report ; 
1845, Botany of Fremont’s Ist and 2d Expeditions ; 
1848, Botany of Emory’s Military Reconnaissance ; 
1850, A Memoir on Batis. A Memoir on Darlingtonia and Plante 
Fremontiane were accepted for the Smithsonian Contrt 
butions and published a year or two later. 
1852; Botany of Stansbury’s Report of his explorations in the 
; region of Great Salt Lake ; ; is “ 
1853, The Plants of Marcy’s Red River Expedition ; or 
1854, Botany of Sitgreaves’ Zuni and Colorado Journey. — 
The reports of the collections of the various Pacific Railroad 
