l60 THE PLANT WORLD. 



this niulertakino-, an intimate association with the members of 

 our Chib and an active participation in its work were prime 

 essentials to success, an ilhistration of the wa}- in which existing 

 forces worked together in carrying forward our natural botan- 

 ical development. Another potent influence of a similar nature 

 should be here recorded. At this time considerable botanical 

 material from distant parts of this country, and from other 

 hitherto unexplored regions, was coming to this city for original 

 stud}-, and this made it imperative that Columbia's botanical 

 house should be set in order in the interest of comparative 

 work. With the knowledge and encouragement of Dr. New- 

 berry, but with comparatively little on the part of others con- 

 cerned in the management of the college. Dr. Britton carried on 

 this work in the interim of his official duties, until at length a 

 great working herbarium existed where before there was chaos. 

 At the same time the botanical instruction was being extended 

 and, of greater importance, was being modernized, ^^'hen the 

 Doctor was at length prepared to make the situation known to 

 Columbia, it was not to submit plans for the organization of a 

 botanical department, but to present to it one already made, and 

 requiring only to be officially recognized and formally named. 

 New York was now guaranteed as one of the first botanical cen- 

 ters of the countr\-, and later of the world, with Dr. Britton as 

 Columbia's fourth professor in botany. 



Thus we see that at every important stage in its development, 

 the botanical department of Columbia has owed its prosperity, 

 not to the institution as such, but to some earnest worker, ready 

 to ma'ke the sacrifice of love. Hosack individually made the 

 botanical garden that afterwards enriched the institution ; Torrey 

 accumulated the herbarium that became the corner-stone of the 

 later structure ; Britton silently — one may almost say surrepti- 

 tiousl\- — l)rought about changes which have finally placed it in 

 the vanguard of the world's botanical forces. 



The intercourse and ])ersonal and professional associations 

 dependent upon the increasing number of persons in and about 

 New York who became interested in botanical work in Torrey's 

 time led most naturall}' and inevitably to a botanical society, at 

 first incidental and unorganized, later a formal organization. 



