THE INCORPORATORS 1 89 



only, for botany had already been allowed to fall out of the 

 medical curriculum in this country ").* 



While in this position he published many important botanical 

 papers, including an account of the plants collected by Edwin 

 James, the botanist of Long's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, 

 the first part of which appeared in 1823. In 1826 he published 

 a fuller account of the botany of this expedition in which the 

 plants, for the first time in an American botanical publication, 

 were arranged in accordance with the natural system. At this 

 time he began the study of the sedges of the genus Carex, and, 

 jointly with Von Schweinitz, published a monograph of the 

 genus in 1825. Some ten years later his monograph of the other 

 North American Cyperaceae appeared, together with a revision 

 of the Carices. 



In 1836 Torrey was appointed Botanist of the State of New 

 York and undertook the preparation of a flora of the State. 

 After many delays and discouragements, this extensive work was 

 published in 1843 in two large quarto volumes. " No other 

 State of the Union has produced a flora to compare with this." 

 (Gray.) 



At an early date Dr. Torrey projected a flora of North 

 America, or of the United States. About 1836 he invited Asa 

 Gray, then his pupil in botanical studies, to join him in the enter- 

 prise, and in 1838 the first two parts of the first volume made 

 their appearance. The remainder of this volume, and also the 

 second were published between 1840 and 1842 and the third and 

 last volume in 1843. From this time nearly to the close of his 

 life Torrey labored constantly to improve and extend this epoch- 

 making work. 



Torrey published a long series of papers, many of them large 

 and important works, on the botanical collections of the Govern- 

 ment expeditions and surveys of the West, beginning with Long's 

 Expedition and including those of Nicollet, Fremont, Emory, 

 Sitgreaves, Stansbury, and Marcy, and of the surveys of the 

 Pacific Railroad and the Mexican Boundary. 



* He also became a professor in Princeton College. 

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