The Work of the Torrey Botanical Club 



By Edward's. Burgess 



The final organization of the Torrey Botanical Club under its 

 present name, was on April 29, 1873, the evening of the inaugural 

 address of the second president, Dr. George Thurber. The club 

 had received a previous charter on April 21, 187 1. But its first 

 published list of officers and members dates from the previous 

 year, 1870, with which year the publication of its monthly Bulle- 

 tin commenced. A previous special organization in 1867 proves 

 to have been a re-organization or concentration, knitting together 

 more firmly the members who were meeting as a club, said Mr. 

 Leggett, "at a date not later than 1865," and who were gathering 

 .with some regularity for field work, on the local flora, from a time 

 as early as the year 1858, when Dr. Allen, discovering a locality 

 for Clematis ochroleuca, brought his prize to Dr. Torrey. From 

 that time on, says Dr. Allen, an informal band of collectors con- 

 tinued to meet for excursions, and formed the nucleus of the club. 

 This nucleus included Dr. Torrey, Dr. T. F. Allen, Mr. W. H. 

 Leggett, Mr. F. J. Bumstead, Mr. James Hogg and brother, Dr. 

 Hyatt and the young D. C. Eaton, afterward professor of botany 

 at Yale. Accepting this latter date of 1858, the club is now 4 

 years old. Even with this estimate, the club still resembles the 

 lady of the census-taker's story, for the club is still understating 

 its age: said President Thurber, "We have no record of the be- 

 ginning of the club, its growth was so gradual/' The few botan- 

 ists of the city gathered and visited at the rooms of the Columbia 

 College Herbarium, drawn there by the genial welcome and wide 



botanical knowledge of its presiding spirit, Dr. Torrey. Visiting 

 botanists naturally sought these rooms. After many meetings by 

 chance, finally came the suggestion to meet by appointment. That 

 suggestion was thought, says President Thurber, to have come 

 from one who was the club's first Vice-President, and whom we 

 enjoy as our senior Vice-President still, the well-known specialist 

 in the Characeae, Dr. Timothy F. Allen. 



But behind this date of 1858 there remains the more casual 



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