GEORGE VASEY. 401 



"While possessing great professional ability, and profound technical 

 knowledge, he was a very genial and also a very conscientious and 

 modest man, and one who won the admiration and regard of all who 

 came in contact with him. 



In closing, I must make my acknowledgments to Professor F. R. 

 Hutton, who has kindly furnished me with most of the facts from which 

 to compose this short paper. 



1893. Gaetano Lanza. 



GEORGE VASEY. 



George Vasey, for many years Chief Botanist in the Department 

 of Agriculture, died at his home in Washington, March 4, 1893. His 

 illness was of brief duration, and although he had attained an ad- 

 vanced age, he was until several days before his death exceptionally 

 regular in performing the arduous and time-consuming duties of his 

 position. His work entailed a wide correspondence, and it was thus 

 that many botanists throughout the country and abroad came to ap- 

 preciate his kind assistance. His letters, however, were chiefly of a 

 professional nature, and many of his colleagues knew little or nothing 

 of his personal history. 



*Born near Scarborough, England, February 28, 1822, he was 

 brought in early childhood by his parents to Western New York, 

 where the family settled at Oriskany, Oneida County, not far from 

 the birthplace of Asa Gray. George Vasey, being oue of a large 

 family in humble circumstances, received only a meagre schooling, 

 and at the age of twelve began work in a store. He early became 

 interested in the plants of the region, and derived his first botanical 

 knowledge of them from Mrs. Lincoln's Botany, a little volume of 

 quaint diction, now almost forgotten. So anxious was he to possess 

 this work, that, not being able to buy it, he copied the text entire. 

 His botanical interest soon attracted the attention of Dr. Knieskern, 

 who brought him to the notice of Professors Torrey and Gray. I lav- 

 ing begun the study of medicine at the age of twenty-one, and having 

 been graduated from the Berkshire Medical Institute at Pittsfield, 

 Massachusetts, in 1846, Dr. Vasey removed in 1848 to Illinois, where he 

 spent eighteen years in the practice of medicine, chiefly at Ringwood 

 and Elgin. Here he had an excellent opportunity to observe the 

 rich prairie vegetation, and made extensive collections, which have a 

 high historic value, since they show the native flora before it had been 

 so greatly impaired and displaced by the present exhaustive cultiva- 

 vol. xxviii. (n. s. xx.) 26 



