PRESTON BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DR. C. C. PARRY. 35 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DR. C. C. PARRY. 



BY C. H. PRESTON, M. D. 

 [Read before the Davenport Academy 0/ Sciences, Septeinber 15, iSgj.) 



On the twentieth of February, 1890, there died at his pleasant 

 home near this city, one to whom the Davenport Academy of 

 Sciences was deeply indebted, and whose memory, fragrant and 

 pure as the flowers he loved, it will ever cherish. 



At that time the working force of our Association had been 

 almost paralyzed by recent sad losses; the publication of its 

 Proceedings was for a time deferred, and so it happened that he 

 who was always ready with an appreciative tribute to the memory 

 of associate or friend, has waited thus long for an expression from 

 this, his home Society, of the admiration and esteem which each 

 and all of its members entertained for him. It is to be regretted 

 that there was not found among us some co-laborer in his own field 

 of botanical science to prepare a sketch of Dr. Parry's life and 

 work — an undertaking for which the writer is qualified only by 

 warm personal friendship and long association in the affairs of this 

 Academy. Deficiencies which must in consequence of necessity 

 exist will, however, in part be made good by citations from those 

 better qualified to speak. 



Charles Christopher Parry was born in the hamlet of Admington, 

 Gloucestershire, England, August 28, 1823. Descended through a 

 long line of clergymen of the Established Church, he was himself 

 of a deeply religious nature, and rarely endowed with that poetic 

 feeling and insight so apt to characterize the true naturalist. 



In 1832 the family removed to America, settling on a farm in 

 Washington County, New York. Here the remainder of his boy- 

 hood was passed, and, the advantages of the schools of the locality 

 having been well improved, he entered Union College at Schenec- 

 tady, and in due time was graduated therefrom with honors. He 

 began the study of medical botany in his undergraduate years, and 

 subsequently received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from 

 Columbia College. 



