CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BoTANY No. 17 3 
Co; PARRY 
In the early years Parry, who lived at Davenport, Iowa got into cor- 
respondence with me because his name was the most prominent at that time, 
doubtless because he was the physician on the Mexican Boundary survey, 
and posed as a botanist. He was selected as the botanist of Capt. Jone’s 
survey of the region of the Yellowstone Wyoming in the Teton region, =e 
found a very small number of plants that were new at that time. A li 
later on he was appointed as botanist of the Department of Agriculture, ne 
same position occupied by the genial Dr. Vasey later on.. 
Parry was a typical toady, as most men had to be to get a position in 
the Government service. He was a suave, well groomed society man with 
little brains, a great feeder of hot air, who slobbered over the great to keep 
in their good graces. He seemed to have pulled the wool over Gray and 
Engelmann though I doubt if he ever was a real friend of either. 
I assume that he was with Gray and Hooker in their trip across the 
continent in the sixties, for he told me of the meeting of the two men with 
Greene in Silver City, New Mexico, where they spent the Sabbath with him 
and attended the service at which Greene preached on “Consider the lilies 
of the field” etc. Parry told me that Greene preached a very good sermon. 
It will be remembered that Greene was an Episcopal minister in charge of 
_ the aa at that time in Silver City. 
n 1880 Parry accompanied Engelmann on his trip across the 
Sadinent ar acted as a kind of chaperone for him. This was on the sup- 
position that t Parry knew the country, because he had spent a month or 
so in southern Utah at St. George botanizing, where he camped on J. E. 
Johnson for a month. During that time Pa and his wife were the 
guests of Johnson, lodged and boarded by him. I have spoken about him as 
being a typical grafter because after getting free board and lodging for a 
month (because he was such a famous (?) botanist), and when he left he 
presented to Johnson with much ceremony a thirty-five cent linen prover 
microscope as a memento of his visit. 
My next acquaintance with Parry was in 1882 when I was on a bot- 
anical tour in southern California. It so happened that Parry was at the 
me up and introduced himself and wife. He then informed me that Pringle 
had just come in on a botanizing trip, and he suggested that we three make 
up a party and go to Ensenada together. This was agreeable to me and it 
was soon arranged. Pringle was an old correspondent of mine, but we had 
never met. Parry took on himself to arrange for the trip by hiring a team 
also a resident of San Diego, a wealthy attorney and a great fern lover, and 
influential citizen. Pringle had his own outfit and a young man as helper. 
