DEVELOPMENT OF BOTANY IN NEW YORK CITY. l6l 



ORGANIZATION OF THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 



The formal organization of the Torrey Botanical Club was 

 undertaken in 1867, and its incorporation occurred four vears 

 later, under the name Xew York Botanical Club, chang-ed the fol- 

 lowing year to that which it now bears. W^ithin three years after 

 its establishment the Club began issuing a monthly publication. 

 the Bill! ct ill, since uninterruptedly maintained. Its prefatory note 

 declared its primary object to be " to form a medium of commu- 

 nication for all those interested in the Flora of this vicinity, and 

 thus to bring together and fan into a flame the sparks of botan- 

 ical enthusiasm, at present too must isolated. . . . ^^^e have 

 chiefly in view the development of a greater botanical interest 

 in our neighborhood, and found our hopes of success as much 

 upon learners as upon the learned." 



In the further unfolding of its objects, the Bulletin uncon- 

 sciously states the object of the Club's organization: "An atten- 

 tive study of plants in their native haunts is essential to the 

 advance of the science, and in this respect the local observer has 

 an advantage over the explorer of extensive regions, or the pos- 

 sessor of a general herbarium. He can note the plant from its 

 cradle to its grave ; can watch its struggles for existence, its 

 habits, its migrations, its variations ; can study its atmospheric 

 and entomological economics ; can speculate on its relations to 

 the past, or experiment on its utility to man." Ecology is thus 

 clearly seen to be the object of study, notwithstanding that the 

 name of it was not generally discovered by our botanical frater- 

 nit}- until about 1890, nor the active and merciless chase of the 

 poor thing by American botanists well under way until about 

 five years later. 



From this time up to the establishment of the Xew York 

 Botanical Garden the history of our Club is practically that of 

 botany in this city, for very little was done that was not directly 

 or indirectl}' connected with us or, one might say, actually cen- 

 tered about us. This fact is of the utmost importance in our 

 study, since upon it depends the essential character of most of 

 what has since occurred. 



(To be concluded.) 



