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Aiuials of Horticulture. 



to his comprehensive mind. At a very early age his love for collecting and 

 classifying plants grew to be an absorbing passion, and he soon took a high 

 rank among American botanists and became, while yet a young man, closely 

 associated with Drs. Torrey, Gray and Englemann, and others of that noble 

 order of scientists. These well-sustained relations opened up a new career 

 for Mr. Thurber, for in 1850 his desire for exploration was realized by an 

 appointment to the position of botanist, to which were added those of quar- 

 termaster and commissary, upon the United States and Mexican boundary 

 survey under Commissioner J. R. Bartlett. During four years he was ac- 

 tively engaged in exploration along the boundary of the United States from 

 the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific ocean. Much of the territory passed over 

 was unknown to science, and with his strong love for plants, it is needless 

 to say that Thurber made valuable contributions to American botany. In 

 Commissioner Bartlett's own words, " He was indefatigable in his exertions 

 to make thorough examinations and complete collections of everything be- 

 longing to his department." Many of the more important of Thurber's 

 discoveries in botany formed the basis of the historic contribution by Dr. 

 Gray, namely : " Plantae Novae Thurbereanse," published in 1854. At that 

 time the honor of a new genus was conferred upon the discoverer in a plant 

 of the mallow family, Thiirberia thespesioides, which Thurber found in 

 Sonora. Later it was determined that this genus was included in gossypium, 

 and Mr. Bentham afterwards, in the journal of the Linnaean Society, xix. 

 58, dedicated another genus to Thurber, comprising grasses of our south- 

 western country of which the Thiirberia Arkansana (Bentham), figured in 

 the recent work "Grasses of the Southwest," by Dr. Vasey, is a member. 

 The exceeding appropriateness of this choice of a generic name will be fully 

 appreciated in the light of further facts connected with Thurber's extensive 

 and critical work done upon American grasses, to be mentioned later. 



During the boundary survey Thurber, among his many interesting dis- 

 coveries, found a species of pilostyles, a small parasite upon the shoots of 

 leguminous plants, and consisting mostly of buds and flowers developing 

 directly from the bark of the host. Drs. Torrey and Gray could scarcely 

 believe the truthfulness of Thurber's remarkable discovery and determina- 

 tion, but became fully convinced after a full investigation of the curious 

 subject. 



The honorary and well-merited degree of Master of Arts was conferred 

 upon Thurber by Brown University upon his return to Providence at the 

 close of the boundary commission. Soon after, largely because Dr. Torrey 

 was its chief, he accepted a position in the United States assay office in New 

 York, for which his previous knowledge of chemistry was able to fit him 

 without further preparation, which indicates the thoroughness of Thurber's 

 early study and the retentiveness of his remarkable memory. In 1856 the 

 position was resigned on account of political differences, and. we have in 

 this a characteristic illustration of the honesty and sincerity of Thurber's 

 whole nature. When asked for a contribution to the campaign fund of the 

 party in power, a usual thing in such places, Thurber, strongly in sympathy 

 with the abolition movement and a supporter of Fremont, inquired if it was 

 an invitation or a demand, and upon learning it was of the latter class, at 

 once tendered his resignation. In no one was there ever a keener sense of 

 justice, and his strict adherence to duty often cost him hardships which he 

 bore as a martyr. Almost at once he became lecturer upon botany and 



