JOHN TORREY. 33! 



tions by the war with Mexico. New botanical material accu- 

 mulated at an astonishing rate, and our 'chief botanists had to 

 choose between continuing the Flora, and allowing these bo- 

 tanical treasures to pass into other hands. They wisely deter- 

 mined to devote themselves to elaborating the new material, 

 knowing that this work would be contributing to the future 

 flora of North America, which, from the enlarged possessions 

 and more thorough exploration of the older territory, must 

 be taken up anew. Both authors industriously worked at 

 the collections brought home by the various Government and 

 private explorers ; those wholly or in large part examined by 

 Dr. Torrey were those of Nicollet's expedition, Fremont's ex- 

 peditions to the Rocky Mountains and to Oregon and North 

 California, Emory's reconnaissance, Captain Stansbury's expedi- 

 tion to the Great Salt Lake, Captain Marcy's exploration of the 

 Red River of Louisiana, Captain Sitgreaves's expedition to the 

 Zuni and Colorado Rivers, the Mexican Boundary Survey, and 

 Lieutenant Ives's Colorado exploring expedition. 



When the New York State geological survey of 1836 was 

 organized, Dr. Torrey was commissioned State botanist. He 

 prepared for the survey The Flora of the State of New York, 

 being a portion of The Natural History of New York, and 

 issued in 1843. This work is in two large quarto volumes, of 

 over five hundred pages each, and illustrated with one hundred 

 and sixty-one plates. The descriptions are all redrawn, elab- 

 orate, and in a somewhat popular style. It is a most striking 

 testimony to the industry of the author, who, while engaged 

 upon this work, and making important explorations incidental 

 to it, was at the same time discharging his professorial duties 

 at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and at Princeton. 



The years i855-'6o saw the publication of the Reports of 

 the Pacific Railroad Survey, to the several volumes of which 

 Dr. Torrey made the following contributions : Vol. II, Botany 

 of Captain Pope's Expedition, Botany of Lieutenant Beck- 

 with's Expedition, Botany of Captain Gunnison's Survey (in 

 these three memoirs Prof. Asa Gray was joint author) ; Vol. 

 IV, Botany of Whipple's Expedition ; Vol. V, Botany of Lieu- 

 tenant Williamson's Report; Vol. VIII, Botany of Lieutenant 

 Parke's Expedition. 



We do not include here the contributions of Dr. Torrey to 

 the memoirs of Prof. Gray and others, for which he frequently 



