Britton : Dr. Torrey as a Botanist • 543 



can leaders in this forward step, and there can be no doubt that 

 if their lives could have been extended into the period of the 

 next overturn of taxonomy by the development of the revo- 

 lutionary line of thought, that they would have promptly accepted 

 the Eichler and Engler systems of to-day. Naturally, all Torrey's 

 subsequent writings were based on this so-called Natural System. 

 Dr. Torrey early became especially interested in the Cyperaceae, 

 and accumulated collections of sedges very extensive for the time. 

 His studies were presented to the Lyceum of Natural History in 

 1836, and published during the same year in the Annals under the 

 title "Monograph of North American Cyperaceae. ,, He did not 

 publish much additional on the family, however, though he kept a 

 copy of the paper posted up, which has been of much service to 

 subsequent students. In fact the great mass of miscellaneous 

 specimens which now began to pour in on him from all over the 

 country, and especially the determination and description of much 

 of the material obtained by the numerous government exploring 

 expeditions, the preparation of the Flora of the State of New York, 

 and of the Flora of North America, the latter in conjunction with 

 Dr. Asa Gray, who made the acquaintance of Torrey while serving 

 as Curator of the Lyceum as early as 183 1, left him no time fo r 

 the monographing of groups. In fact his only other considerable 

 treatment of a large group is the u Revision of the Eriogoneae,' , 

 jointly with Dr. Gray, published in 1870. 



He was appointed Botanist of the Geological Survey of New 

 York, at its organization in 1836. In the prosecution of his duties 

 in this capacity he was aided by all the botanists resident at that 

 time within the State, in bringing together the voluminous material 



which was published in 1843 as " A Flora of the State of New 

 York," in two large quarto volumes, illustrated by 161 plates, a 

 work which stands to-day as the most noteworthy, elegant and 

 complete presentation of a local flora of any produced in the 

 United States. It is recorded that he had to purchase a copy of 

 this work in order to secure one, such restrictions having been made 

 by those in charge of its publication. A roll of proof sheets was 

 found subsequently, however, and given by Dr. Torrey to Dr. 

 Thurber, who in 1873 said of them, " handsomely bound, it is 

 one of the prized works in my library, and is unique as being 



