OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 267 



pbyto-geograpliical province, Texas and California were accordingly 

 annexed botauically before they became so politically. 



While the field of botanical operations was thus enlarging, the time 

 which could be devoted to it was restricted. In addition to his chair 

 in the Medical College, Dr. Torrey had felt obliged to accept a similar 

 one at Princeton College, and to all was now added, as we have seen, 

 the onerous post of State Botanist. It was in the year 183G or 1837 

 that he invited the writer of this notice — then pursuing botanical 

 studies under his auspices and direction — to become his associate in 

 the Flora of North America. In July and in October, 1838, the first 

 two parts, making half of the first volume, were published. The 

 great need of a full study of the sources and originals of the earlier 

 published species was now apparent ; so, during the following year, his 

 associate occupied himself with this work in the principal herbaria of 

 Europe. The remaining half of the first volume appeared in June, 

 1840. The first part of the second volume followed in 1841 ; tlie 

 second in the spring of 1842 ; and in February, 1843, came the third 

 and the last ; for Dr. Torrey's associate was now also immersed in pro- 

 fessorial duties, and in the consequent preparation of the works and 

 collections which were necessary to their prosecution. 



From that time to the present the scientific exploration of the vast 

 interior of the continent has been actively carried on, and in conse- 

 quence new plants have poured in year by year in such numbers as to 

 overtask the powers of the few working botanists of the country, nearly 

 all of them weighted with professional engagements. The most they 

 could do has been to put collections into order in special reports, revise 

 here and there a family or a genus monographically, and incorporate 

 new materials into older parts of the fabric, or rough-hew them for 

 portions of the edifice yet to be constructed. In all this Dr. Toi'rey 

 took a prominent part down almost to the last days of his life. Pass- 

 ing by various detached and scattered articles upon curious new genera 

 and the like, but not forgetting three admirable papers published in the 

 Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge (Plantas Fremontiante, and 

 those on Batis and Darlingtonia), there is a long series of important, 

 and some of them very extensive, contributions to the reports of govern- 

 ment explorations of the western country, — from that of Long's expe- 

 dition already referred to, in which he first developed his powers, 

 through those of Nicollet, Fremont, and Emory, Sitgreaves, Stansbury, 

 and Marcy, and those contained in the ampler volumes of the Surveys 

 for Pacific Railroad routes, down to that of the Mexican Boundary, 

 the botany of which forms a bulky quarto volume, of much interest. 



