Porter : Reminiscences of John Torrev 561 



then was a specimen of Quincy granite, and Dr. Torrey demon- 

 strated to me that it was not syenite. 



Now, so far as I am aware, I am the only one who remains 

 of the original members of the club. As these have one by one 

 dropped into the other life a pang has rent me as I realized that I 

 should no more enjoy the profit and pleasure of their companion- 

 ship ; as of Ruger, the most unpretending and one of the most 

 devout, faithful and capable. They were all like Dr. Torrey 

 himself, possessed of the true spirit of a laborer in the fields of 

 the infinities. No man was more kind than Dr. Torrey. He was 

 ever ready to aid the learner, and was in everything as confiding as 

 an ingenuous youth. Dr. Newberry, who followed, was my kind 

 and valued friend, and was of great assistance to me. Professor 

 Alphonso Wood I knew intimately, and worked with him con- 

 siderably and with profit. He was a kind and most scholarly 

 man, thorough and correct and I do not think he was fairly ap- 

 preciated. 



Finally I send congratulations to every member of the Torrey 

 Club. I salute all those whom I have known. May every suc- 

 cess attend them. 



By Prof. Thomas C. Porter. 



It affords me special pleasure to offer here to-day a slight trib- 

 ute, in the shape of reminiscences, to the memory of one whom I 

 have long held in high esteem both as a scientist and as a gentle- 

 man of noble character. 



My first acquaintance with Dr. Torrey began at the meeting of 

 the American Association in Albany, in the year 1850, and his 

 treatment of me, so much younger than himself, was most cordial 

 and friendly. When walking together along the street, he went a 

 considerable distance out of his way in order to show me, growing 

 in a waste place, a very rare plant, specimens of which I collected 

 and still have, Amaranthus crispus, a foreigner of uncertain origin. 



At another meeting of the American Association, held in Haiti- 

 more in the year 1858, Mrs. Lincoln-Phelps, who before her sec- 

 ond marriage had published a little volume, amongst the earliest of 

 our floras, and was still as fond as ever of her favorite science, 



