PRESTON BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DR. C. C. PARRY. 37 



Pickering, both of Davenport, beside a half sister, Mrs. Austin, 

 residing in Arkansas. 



We are fortunate in possessing, in Dr. Parry's own words (Proc, 

 Vol. II., p. 279), a succinct, chronological account of his work 

 up to 1878, which need not be repeated here. Suffice it to say 

 that for more than thirty years the greater part of his time had 

 been spent in observing and collecting — along the St. Peters and 

 up the St. Croix; across the Isthmus to San Diego, to the junction 

 of the Gila and Colorado, along the Southern boundary line and 

 up the coast as far as Monterey; through Texas to El Paso, to the 

 Pimo settlements on the Gila, and along the Rio Grande; in the 

 mountains of Colorado, to which and to those of California he 

 returned again and again in the pursuit of his special study, the 

 Alpine Flora of North America; across the continent with a 

 Pacific railroad surveying party by way of the Sangre de Christo 

 Pass, through New Mexico and Arizona, through the Tehachapi 

 Pass, through the Tulare and San Joaquin Valleys to San Fran- 

 cisco; through the Wind River district to the Yellowstone National 

 Park; in the Valley of the Virgen and about Mt. Nebo, Utah; 

 about San Bernardino, California, and in the arid regions stretch- 

 ing to the eastward; and in Mexico about San Luis Potosi, Saltillo, 

 and Monterey. 



The winter of 1852-3 was spent in Washington, in the prepara- 

 tion of his report as Botanist to the Mexican Boundary Survey; 

 and the years from 1869 to 187 1 inclusive, while Botanist to the 

 United States Agricultural Department, were also passed chiefly at 

 the capital, employed in arranging the extensive botanical collec- 

 tions from various government explorations, which had accumu- 

 lated at the Smithsonian Institution. During this period, also, he 

 visited, in his official capacity, the Royal Gardens and herbaria at 

 Kew, England, and was attached as Botanist to the Commission of 

 Inquiry which visited San Domingo early in 187 1. The report of 

 his observations in that island is a valuable summary of its chief 

 botanical features, vegetable products, and agricultural capacities. 



His visit to Kew and the land of his birth was the beginning of 

 a lasting friendship between himself and the eminent Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, Director of the Gardens, who afterward in a congratula- 

 tory letter dated February 27, 1877, calls him "already king of 

 Colorado botany," and expresses deep interest in the results of his 

 explorations, then making, in Southern California. 



