268 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Even at the last, when he rallied transiently from the fatal attack, he 

 took in hand the manuscript of an elaborate report on the plants collected 

 along our Pacific coast in Admiral Wilkes's celebrated expedition, which 

 he had prepared fully a dozen years, ago, and which (except as to the 

 plates) remains still un^mblished, through no fault of his. There would 

 have been more to add, perhaps of equal importance, if Dr. Torrey had 

 been as ready to complete and publish, as he was to investigate, anno- 

 tate, and sketch. Through undue diffidence, and a constant desire for 

 a greater perfection than was at the time attainable, many interest- 

 ing observations have from time to time been anticipated by other 

 botanists. 



All this botanical work, it may be observed, has reference to the 

 Flora of North America, in which, it was hoped, the diverse and sep- 

 arate materials and component parts, which he and others had wrought 

 upon, might some day be brought together in a completed system of 

 American botany. It remains to be seen whether his surviving asso- 

 ciate of nearly forty years will be able to complete the edifice. To do 

 this will be to supply the most pressing want of the science, and to 

 raise the fittest monument to Dr. Torrey's memory. 



In the estimate of Dr. Torrey's botanical work, it must not be for- 

 gotten that it was nearly all done in the intervals of a busy professional 

 life ; that he was for more than thirty years an active and distinguished 

 teacher, mainly of chemisti-y, and in more than one institution at the 

 same time ; that he devoted much time and remarkable skill and judg- 

 ment to the practical applications of chemistry, in which his counsels 

 were constantly sought and too generously given ; that when, in 1857, 

 he exchanged a portion, and a few years later the whole, of his profes- 

 sional duties for the office of United States Assayer, these requisitions 

 upon his time became more numerous and urgent.* In addition to the 

 ordinary duties of his office, which he fulfilled to the end with punctil- 

 ious ftiithfulness (signing the last of his daily reports upon the very 

 day of his death, and quietly telling his son and assistant that it would 

 not be necessary to bring him any more), he was frequently requested 



* It ought to be added that, when the Government Assay OfBce at New York 

 was established, the Secretary of the Treasury selected Dr. Torrey to be its 

 Superintendent, — which would have given to the establishment the advantage 

 of a scientific head. But Dr. Torrey resolutely declined the less laborious and 

 better paid post, and took in preference one the emoluments of which were 

 much below his worth and the valuable extraneous services he rendered to the 

 Government, — simply because he was unwilling to accept the care and respon- 

 sibility of treasure. 



