37 
seemed to me- that hé valued his chemical knowledge more for its 
benefit to others (and they not always worthy) than for any 
pecuniary reward it might bring to himself. I have known him to 
give advice of the greatest value to the recipients and make analy- 
ses, at a cost to himself of both time and money, without charge, 
and evidently for the pleasure it gave him to aid another. 
When the U. S. Assay office was established in this city in 1854, 
Dr. Torrey was offered the post of Superintendent, but this being 
unsuited to his tastes he declined it for the scientific position of 
Assayer, an office which he held until his death. A short time after 
entering upon his duties as Assayer he resigned his chair at the 
medical college and was elected Professor Emeritus. This appoint- 
ment as Assayer was a deserved recognition by the government of 
the scientific acquirements of our friend, and it is to be regretted 
that the salary accompanying it was not in proportion to the respon- 
sibility of the position. While discharging his duties as Assayer he 
was often called in consultation by the Treasury Department in 
matters requiring a profound chemical knowledge. He was won- 
derfully fertile in ingenious expedients, and much of whatever secur- 
ity our national currency possesses against counterfeits is due to his 
suggestions. ‘The relations of Dr. Torrey to the Treasury Depart- 
ment had one happy result, Although he had done so much in 
describing and naming the plants of the far west, he had travelled 
but little: he “had never seen a prairie,” as I once heard him say 
with a tone of sadness, and had never ascended a mountain higher 
than Mt. Marcy. It was a graceful act of the Secretary of the 
Treasury to send him in 1865 upon a confidential mission to Califor- 
nia. He went by the way of the Isthmus and was able to see and 
enjoy the luxuriant vegetation of the tropics, and, when he reached 
his destination, was met by an order to make some extended 
explorations, for the accomplishment of which a revenue cutter was. 
placed at his command. hile in California he was able to see 
many of the plants he had described growing in their native'local- 
ities, and to make considerable collections for the herbarium. 
In 1872 he made another journey to California, this time by 
Railroad. Upon his return journey he tarried awhile among the 
Rocky Mountains and ascended Torrey’s Peak, which was several 
years ago thus named by his former pupil, Dr. Parry. It is pleas- 
ant to think of him as passing the last days of his botanizing, In 
the evening of his life, among the alpine plants which in his youth 
he first made known to the botanical world. 
Neither this last journey to California nor one made the pre- 
vious winter to Florida served to arrest the disease which those 
who saw him only at intervals could perceive was gradually wast- 
Ing his body, though it did not dim his intellect nor mmpair his 
cheerfulness, At sunset on the tenth of March last he peacefully 
went to his rest. i 
I would willingly stop here, for to us who knew him no words of 
eulogy are needed. Each one knows how the intelligence of his 
death brought to him a sense of personal bereavement and told him 
how strong a hold our chief had upon his affections. 
