JOHN TORREY. 329 



science. His botanical career commenced while he was yet a 

 student of medicine. In 1817 he aided in founding the New 

 York Lyceum of Natural History, and was one of the eleven 

 corporators named in the charter of that institution. The early 

 volumes of the Annals of the Lyceum are enriched by some of 

 his most important contributions to science. His first botanical 

 publication was A Catalogue of Plants growing spontaneously 

 within Thirty Miles of the City of New York. This was pre- 

 sented to the Lyceum in 1817, but was not published until 1819. 

 It contains 100 pages, is now exceedingly rare, and chance 

 copies offered at sales of libraries bring fabulous prices. We 

 find quoted in this catalogue the names of those who were dis- 

 tinguished botanists half a century ago, the author acknowl- 

 edging aid from Mitchill, Nuttall, Rafinesque, Eaton, Eddy, Le 

 Conte, Cooper, and others. When we consider the youth of the 

 author, barely twenty-one, we must regard this catalogue as a 

 remarkable performance. Only those who have undertaken 

 similar works can appreciate the amount of labour necessary 

 to its production, and botanists who go over the same ground 

 at the present day wonder at the completeness of the list. It 

 gives us some idea of the astonishing growth of the city to 

 read in this catalogue of some of the author's favourite locali- 

 ties, such as " Love Lane," " Bogs near Greenwich," and 

 " Swamp behind the Botanic Garden," places that have long 

 been covered by paved streets and brick and brown-stone 

 blocks. 



This catalogue, was the precursor of a considerable number 

 of most valuable botanical publications. One of the earliest of 

 these was A Flora of the Northern and Middle United States, 

 or a Systematic Arrangement and Description of all the Plants 

 heretofore discovered in the United States north of Virginia. 

 Elliott's Botany of South Carolina and Georgia was being pub- 

 lished in numbers at the time Dr. Torrey commenced this 

 Flora, which, as he says in his preface, was intended as a 

 " counterpart " to Elliott's work. Like the latter, his was is- 

 sued in numbers, and the first volume was completed in 1824. 

 But one volume of this work was published, and, as a portion 

 of the edition was destroyed by fire, it is now only rarely to be 

 met with. It contains over five hundred pages, and includes 

 the first twelve classes of the Linnsean system, the species 

 being described with a clearness and minuteness and the synon- 



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