366 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
tion than was at the time attainable, many interesting obser- 
vations 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 separate 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 associate 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 forgotten 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 chemistry, and 
in more than one institution at the same time; that he devoted 
much time and remarkable skill and judgment to the practical 
applications of chemistry, in which his counsels were constantly 
sought and too generously given; that when, in 1857, he ex- 
changed a portion, and a few years later the whole, of his pro- 
fessional 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 punctilious faithfulness (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 by the head 
of the Treasury Department to undertake the solution of diffi- 
cult problems, especially those relating to counterfeiting, or to 
take charge of some delicate or confidential commission, the ut- 
most reliance being placed upon his skill, wisdom, and probity. 
1 It ought to be added, that, when the government Assay Office at 
New York was established, the Secretary of the Treasury selected Dr. 
Torrey to be its superintendent, — which would have given to the estab- 
lishment 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 valu- 
able extraneous services he rendered to the government, — simply because 
he was unwilling to accept the care and responsibility of treasure. 
