752 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS. 



Botanical work was always in progress in some form. One of the 

 very valuable parts of it consisted in his contributions to the American 

 Journal of Science, — which were continued, with scarcely any interrup- 

 tion, for the love of the science and of the men engaged in it. Every 

 important work as it was issued was here noticed, with often critical 

 remarks, or additional facts and illustrations, or modifications of opin- 

 ions, that gave them great scientific value. And not the least instruc- 

 tive and attractive part were the biographical sketches of deceased 

 botanists, European as well as American; for to him the world was all 

 one, and all -botanists were akin. He was sure to criticise what he be- 

 lieved to be wrong ; but it was done so fairly, with so evident a desire 

 for scientific accuracy, and in so kind a spirit, that offense was rarely 

 given. A botanist of eminence says that " these notices form the best 

 history of .the botanical literature of the last fifty years, and of the prog- 

 ress and development of botanical science, that has been written." 



The fortieth volume of this Journal (1841) contains an admirable 

 example of his kindly method of reviewing an author that had faults, 

 and of his critical study among great difficulties. It is a review of the 

 botanical writings of Rafinesque, that enthusiastic naturalist, poet, etc., 

 with reference, not to his faults, but to the value to be attached to his 

 numerous genera and species and their recognition in American Botany. 

 Throughout there is a full appreciation of Rafinesque's sagacity in many 

 of his discriminations, a fair presentation of his scientific claims, of his 

 love of nature and greater love of self, without a harsh word for his 

 errors or egotism; and only a citing of a sentence here and there, or a 

 fact, that enables Rafinesque to make his own presentations as to his 

 species and genera, with a bare mention of his "twelve new species of 

 thunder and lightning." 



The publication of the second volume of the " Flora," in 1843, ended 

 that work. The territory of the United States afterward took larger 

 dimensions, and new fields were to be explored before a complete 

 "Flora" could be published. Torrey was engaged on these studies 

 until his death in 1873; and Gray also was publishing memoirs that 

 were contributions to the subject. Gray's various memoirs include — 

 descriptions of the collections made by Lindheimer, in western Texas 

 (l843-'48); by Fendler, in New Mexico (1846-'47); by Wright, near the 

 boundary of Texas and Mexico (1849 and 1851-'52) ; by Thurber, along 

 the United States and Mexican boundary (1851-'52); the Botany of vari- 

 ous Government surveys, and other Government reports, and a portion 

 of the Botany of California. Other papers are distributed through the 

 publications of learned societies, especially the American Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences of Boston, which contains hundreds of pages of them, 

 the Proceedings of the Philadelphia and California Academies, the 

 Boston Society of Natural History, the Linnean Society of London, etc. 



Further, the i)lants of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition, exclusive 

 of the ferns and those from western North America, were early sent to 



