THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 213 



which must have had great influence in his pursuits in 

 after life. His first business occupation was in a dry goods 

 store, where he continued long enough to acquire a thorough 

 detestation of it. He then assisted his father in his steam 

 transportation ventures, and this occupied his business 

 hours for many years. It was intensified when, in 1836, he 

 became a member of the New York Lyceum of Natural 

 History, of which Dr. Asa Gray was then the librarian and 

 superintendent. Here was commenced that friendship 

 which was destined to be close and lasting. It was at this 

 time that he acquired a taste for conchology, in which he 

 made much progress, and which resulted in a number of 

 papers on this subject published in the Annals of the 

 Lyceum. He thoroughly explored the country in the 

 vicinity, over land much of which is now closely built 

 upon, and in every way which the time at his command 

 and his means permitted, strove to advance the scientific 

 interests of himself and his associates. As early as 1846 he 

 became a member of the Academv of Natural Sciences of 



^ 



Philadelphia. In 1843 he made a very happy marriage, 

 and this, perhaps, was the eventual cause of his removal to 

 Philadelphia in 1861, where he long held a prominent 

 position in the extensive and well-known car-wheel works 

 of A. Whitney & Sons, with the members of which his 

 marriage connected him. His allegiance was necessarily 

 transferred from the Lyceum to the Academy, of which he 

 soon became a life member, and was gradually advanced to 

 many of its most important and laborious offices. Thus, in 

 1870 he became a member of its Council, and was also 

 made Conservator of its Botanical Section, the latter a most 

 important office, as it placed the various and very important 



