332 



IK'NEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



elaborated genera and families; nor do we enumerate his minor 

 contributions to the sciences. 



Nearly all of these memoirs are illustrated by engravings, 

 and some of them profusely. Dr. Torrey rarely attempted to 

 give the portrait of a plant, leaving that to the professional 

 draughtsman ; but in all the sketches showing minute structure 

 that which gave the illustrations their greatest value to the 

 botanist his ready pencil found frequent employment. He 

 drew with great neatness and rapidity, and it was his custom to 

 record his observations by means of sketches of remarkable 

 distinctness and accuracy. 



For several years subsequent to 1861 he was engaged in 

 herbarium work. His removal to Columbia College, and the 

 disposal of his most valuable collection to that institution, ren- 

 dered it necessary that the accumulations of years, including 

 numerous typical specimens, should be put in complete order. 

 He entered into the drudgery of assorting, determining, label- 

 ling, and mounting in the herbarium the mass of unarranged 

 material, with the same industry and zeal that he brought to 

 more congenial work. No other hands than his could have 

 completed this important task, and botanists have reason to be 

 grateful that he was spared long enough to put it, in some 

 respects, the most important herbarium in the country, in 

 proper condition for study and reference. 



This work being completed, we find him, though advanced 

 in life, again contributing to his favourite science, and, in 1870, 

 The Revision of the Eriogonese, the joint production of him- 

 self and Prof. Asa Gray, was published in tin Proceedings of 

 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. On the return 

 of Wilkes's exploring expedition, the botanical collections were 

 divided between Drs. Torrey and Gray, except the Crypto- 

 gamia, which were given to specialists. In the division Dr. 

 dray took the extra-American share, while those collected 

 on our Pacific coast were elaborated by Dr. Torrey. Before 

 his memoir could be published, the civil war came on, and 

 stopped all appropriations for such work. A few months 

 before his death the proposition to publish was revived, and 

 the last botanical work of Dr. Torrey was to take up, during a 

 rally from his fatal illness, this long-delayed manuscript of the 

 IjMt.my of Wilkes's expedition, and prepare it for the press. 

 Although his mind was as clear and his perceptions as acute as 



