I 66 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



time to botany, as his " Catalogue of the Plants growing sponta- 

 neously within thirty miles of New York" was presented to the 

 LyCeum in 1817, which was a year before he took his degree. 



While yet a student of medicine, Dr. Torrey was one of the 

 founders of the New York Lyceum of Natural History and, during 

 its early career, was one of its most active members and contributed 

 to its Annals many of its most important papers. In this men- 

 tion of the Lyceum it may be well to state that by acting as its 

 curator a young botanist from Western New York was enabled to 

 pursue his botanical studies in New York. This young botanist is 

 now known as Prof. Asa Gray. 



After obtaining his medical degree, Dr. Torrey took an office 

 in New York City, but the attractions of botany, mineralogy, en- 

 tomology and chemistry prevented him from applying himself se- 

 riously to practice. 



Soon after he was graduated, the expedition of Maj. Long was 

 proposed, and Dr. Torrey was offered the position of botanist. He 

 was greatly tempted to accept this opportunity for botanical dis- 

 tinction, but he had formed ties which were strong enough to keep 

 him at home. Dr. Baldwin was appointed in his place and upon 

 the death of Baldwin, who was an almost hopeless invalid from the 

 start, the duties of botanist were performed by the surgeon of the 

 expedition, Dr. James. 



In 1820, Dr. Torrey published in Sillimans Journal '•' A No- 

 tice of Plants collected by Capt. N. Douglas around the Great 

 Lakes at the Head Waters of the Mississippi. 



In 1823, he contributed to the Annals of the Lyceum of Nat- 

 ural History "Descriptions of some new or rare plants from the 

 Rocky Mountains, collected by Dr. Edwin P. James. 1 ' 



In 1821 he published " A Flora of the Northern and Middle 

 States, or Systematic Arrangement and Description of all the 

 Plants heretofore discovered North, of Virginia." In this year he 

 was married to Miss Eliza Robinscn Shaw, and was settled at West 

 Point as Professor of Chemistry in the U, S. Military Academy. 

 This Flora, the concluding pages of which were written on the 

 morning of its author's wedding day, is now rare, a large portion 

 of the edition having been destroyed by fire. It contains over 50<) 

 species and includes the first twelve classes of the Linnsean system. 

 In this work the author first manifested his acuteness in diagnosis, 

 and it is remarkable for its elaborate and minute descriptions. 



In this same year, 1824, we find "Descriptions of New Grasses 

 from the Rocky Mountains" in the Annals of the Lyceum, and a 

 "Monograph of the North American species of Carex," of which 

 he was joint author with Schweinitz. Schweinitz had placed the 

 paper in Dr. Torrey 's hands, to edit and supervise the printing of 

 it, during the author's absence in Europe. When Schweinitz 

 found how much the value of his monograph had been increased 

 by additions and revision, he insisted that Torrey 's name should 



