BOTANICAL ClAZETTE. 
‘Vou. X, APRIL, 1885. No. 4. 
Torreya taxifolia, Arnott. 
A REMINISCENCE, 
Ba BY A. W. CHAPMAN. 
of * forming a correct idea of its surroundings, and the ap nded_ list 
n ° 
forms, wii 
peculiar to the climate of Florida, the quiet of the pleasant town 
of Quiney was interrupted by the rapid approach of a carriage 
with attendant outriders, which, having made part of the circuit 
of the Si square, drew up before my office, and a gentleman 
of middle age, spare habit, light hair, and blue eyes, came forth 
and ‘troduced himself as Mr. Croom, of North Carolina. 
1s was the commencement of my brief intercourse with 
Hardy B, Croom, the discoverer of Torreya; for, as is well re- 
membered, a year afterwards he was lost at sea, with all of his 
Fifty years ago, on one of those calm, hazy October evenings, 
fron, estic life; but which now, by impoverishment resulting 
pai lsastrous civil conflict, and consequent change of social 
ms and duties, and by the invasion of ruder manners and 
°oser ethi 
les, have entirely disappeared. : 
At that time TI was a mere it in botany, groping among the 
veg ras” of Katon’s Manual, attracted thereto by the strange 
Setation of a new and unexplored country that met my view on 
