554 Burgess : Work of Torrey Botanical Club 



one of the brightest spots in the memories of the early members of 

 the Torrey Club. As already stated, the club at first did not know 

 itself by that name, but appears in print simply as " The Club," 

 1870, and received its first charter 187 1 as the New York Botan- 

 ical Club, amended next year to its present name, The Torrey 

 Botanical Club. But that it had been for years the intent to call the 

 club by Dr. Torrey's name appears from Mr. Leggett's so entitling 

 the Bulletin when first publishing it in January, 1870. 



Dr. Torrey was the first president, then unostentatiously 

 termed chairman, and P. V. LeRoy, his herbarium curator, was 

 the first secretary. In 1870, when the first list was published in 

 the Bulletin, there were 30 members ; including one who had just 

 died, Mr. W. W. Denslow, then the chief authority on the flora of 

 the northern part of the island, but whose knowledge was unfor- 

 tunately not preserved by any printed memoranda. 



The Club meetings w r ere then as for many years held in the 

 Columbia College Herbarium on 49th' street; they early averaged 

 as many as 17 members present, often also with three or four vis- 

 itors. The exhibition and discussion of new or unusual species of 

 plants formed a principal part of the decidedly social and cheerful 

 meetings ; another feature then prominent was the exhibition of 

 new books ; for instance on the evening of February 27 9 1872, 

 there were shown among new accessions to the Herbarium Library 

 (together with works by Grisebach, Osten Sacken, Reichard, etc.), 

 the newly received Flora of the Galapagos Islands, by Sir J. D. 

 Hooker, and his Sketches of the Flora of Pennsylvania by our 

 honored fellow member Prof. T. C. Porter. 



It was just as the organization of the Club was being perfected 

 that Dr. Torrey passed away. On Jan. 7, 1873, the permanent 

 charter was read and adopted, and on the second meeting for that 

 month, Jan. 29, 1873, Dr. Torrey presided for the last time. He 

 was taken with pleurisy the next day, and though rallying, was 

 not well enough to attend another meeting. To the meeting of 

 February 25th he sent a cheerful note stating his interest, and that 

 he had not in nearly fifty years had a sickness of more than a few 

 days. It was on this evening that he sent to the Club the picture 

 of the Herbarium showing Dr. Torrey sitting at his work, painted 

 by his niece Mrs. Daniell. His death occurred March 10th fol- 



