366 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



tion than was at the time attainable, many interesting obser- 

 vations have from time to time been anticipated by other 

 botanists. 



All this botanical work, it may be observed, has reference 

 to the Flora of North America, in which, it was hoped, the 

 diverse and separate materials and component parts, which he 

 and others had wrought upon, might some day be brought 

 together in a completed system of American botany. 



It remains to be seen whether his surviving associate of 

 nearly forty years will be able to complete the edifice. To do 

 this will be to supply the most pressing want of the science, 

 and to raise the fittest monument to Dr. Torrey's memory. 



In the estimate of Dr. Torrey's botanical work, it must not 

 be forgotten that it was nearly all done in the intervals of a 

 busy professional life ; that he was for more than thirty years 

 an active and distinguished teacher, mainly of chemistry, and 

 in more than one institution at the same time ; that he devoted 

 much time and remarkable skill and judgment to the practical 

 applications of chemistry, in which his counsels were constantly 

 sought and too generously given ; that when, in 1857, he ex- 

 changed a portion, and a few years later the whole, of his pro- 

 fessional duties for the office of United States Assayer, these 

 requisitions upon his time became more numerous and urgent. 1 

 In addition to the ordinary duties of his office, which he fulfilled 

 to the end with punctilious faithfulness (signing the last of 

 his daily reports upon the very day of his death, and quietly 

 telling his son and assistant that it would not be necessary to 

 bring him any more), he was frequently requested by the head 

 of the Treasury Department to undertake the solution of diffi- 

 cult problems, especially those relating to counterfeiting, or to 

 take charge of some delicate or confidential commission, the ut- 

 most reliance being placed upon his skill, wisdom, and probity. 



1 It ought to be added, that, when the government Assay Office at 

 New York was established, the Secretary of the Treasury selected Dr. 

 Torrey to be its superintendent, — which would have given to the estab- 

 lishment the advantage of a scientific head. But Dr. Torrey resolutely 

 declined the less laborious and better paid post, and took in preference 

 one the emoluments of which were much below his worth and the valu- 

 able extraneous services he rendered to the government, — simply because 

 he was unwilling to accept the care and responsibility of treasure. 



