36 
sonie, he: was constantly examining plants and making sketches that 
might be useful hereafter. It was a peculiarity of Dr. Torrey that 
he always recorded his observations by means of the pencil, and if 
we look through the herbarium there will be found drawings of 
minute structure by hundreds, giving at a glance what he saw in 
examining a plant. While he published no drawings as his own, 
we can find traces of his handi-work all through the illustrations 
to his various memoirs, 
The last important botanical contribution of Dr. Torrey was 
“The Revision of the Eriogoneae,” the joint work of himself and 
Dr. Gray, published in the Proceedings of the American Academy 
in 1870. 
Many years ago he elaborated that portion of the collections 
made upon the Pacific coast by the botanists of Wilkes’ expedition. 
This, through the failure of appropriations, was not published upon 
its completion. Oneof the last acts of its author’s life was to look 
over the manuscript of this report and commit its final revision for 
publication to Dr, Gray. 
The fondness of Dr. Torrey for sciences other than botany has 
been already alluded to. At one time he was an enthusiastic stu: 
dent of entomology, or, as he expressed it—he “had the fever.” 
This lasted but a short time, but I have been suprised at his knowl- 
edge of insects, when nearly half a century had passed since he 
studied them. 
At one time he gave much attention to mineralogy,a pursuit in 
which he was often associated with another botanist—Nuttall. 
The earlier volumes of Silliman’s Journal contain important contri- 
butions to mineralogy from his pen. Mineralogy is so intimately 
related to chemistry that he retained through life a lively interest 
in this department of science, ; 
Those who have regarded Dr. Torrey as a botanist only, will be 
surprised to know that the avocation of his life was that of a chem- 
ist, and that the works that have made him an undying name in 
science were done in what he regarded as his hours of recreation. 
As a chemist he was, as in other matters, acute, patient, cautious, 
and, I need not add, inflexibl y honest. He was a teacher of chemis- 
try for over thirty years and for most of this time in more than one 
college. His professorial labors were performed at a most inter- 
esting period in the history of the science, when chemistry made 
 itselt felt outside of the laboratory and manifested its usefulness 
not only in its Telations to medicine and the arts but in the opera- 
tions of daily life. Year after year large classes of young men went 
out from his lecture-room and laboratory, and among these are to 
be found many of the eminent chemists of the present day. 
There are some chemists whose reputation is greater among the 
people at large than it is among men of science, and they are often — 
upon the public platform. Dr. Torrey shrank from this kind of 
notoriety, and the knowledge of his acquirements as achemist was — 
mainly confined to scientific men, Had he been so disposed, he 
could have made chemistry largely renumerative, but it alway’ — 
