BOTANICAL GAZETTE. I 69 



1861. The Report of. Lieut. Ives 1 Exploration of the Colorado 

 was published with a Botanical Appendix, mainly by Dr. Torrey. 



The Report upon the Botany of the Mexican Boundary was 

 published in 1859, the most voluminous, as it is the most import- 

 ant, of all these contributions to the botany of the far West. The 

 survey was, on account of various changes, prolonged oyer a period 

 of five years or more; it passed over a vast territory, which, for the 

 most part was botanically new. Parry, Wright, Bigelow, Schott 

 and Thurber all contributed their collections to make up this ex- 

 ceedingly valuable report, one which may fitly close the record of 

 Dr. Torrey's more important contributions to science. 



' After the Report of the Botany of the Mexican Boundary was 

 completed, Dr. Torrey transferred his invaluable herbarium and his 

 library to Columbia College. As regards this herbarium, no other 

 collection contains so many typical specimens from which the 

 original descriptions were drawn. After it had been transferred to 

 its new quarters it needed re-arrangement. Specimens had accu- 

 mulated more rapidly than they could be disposed of, and all those 

 collected by the recent expeditions had to be incorporated with the 

 general herbarium. For several years succeeding the publication 

 of the Report of the Mexican Boundary, Dr. Torrey was employed 

 in herbarium work. No hand but his could properly perform this 

 scientific drudgery, and he went at it with a perseverance that in 

 time brought it to completion. 



During these years of herbarium work, necessary though irk- 

 some, he was constantly examining plants and making sketches 

 that might be useful thereafter. It was a peculiarity of Dr. Tor- 

 rey that he always recorded his observations by means of the pen- 

 cil, and if we look' through the herbarium there will be found 

 drawings of minute structure by hundreds, giving at a glance what 

 he saw in examining a plant. While he published no drawings as 

 his own, we can find traces of his handi-work all through the illus- 

 trations to his various memoirs. 



The last important botanical contribution of Dr. Torrey was 

 " The Revision of the Eriogoneae, 11 the joint work of himself and 

 Dr. Gray, published in the Proceedings of the American Academy 

 in 1870. 



Many years ago he elaborated that portion of the collections 

 made upon the Pacific coast by the botanists of Wilkes' expedition. 

 This, through the failure of appropriations, was not published upon 

 its completion. One of the last acts of its author's life was to look 

 over the manuscript of this report and commit its final revision for 

 publication to Dr. Gray. 



The fondness of Dr. Torrey for sciences other than botany has 

 been already alluded to. At one time he was an enthusiastic stu- 

 dent of entomology, or, as he expressed it — he "had the fever. 1 



At one time he gave much attention to mineralogy, a pursuit 

 in which he was often associated with another botanist — Nuttall. 



