218 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. HI. No. 59. 



which he possessed, it seemed as if the 

 most useful period of his life was just about 

 to begin. Many who are here present will 

 remember the dinner given in his honor 

 shortly after his fiftieth birthday, and how 

 bright and promising his future then 

 seemed. His untimely death prevented the 

 realization of our anticipations; but yet, now 

 that we can survey his career and review 

 with care his achievements, it does not 

 seem credible that they are those of one 

 suddenly cut down in the prime of his life. 



They are rather those of a man who, hav- 

 ing lived to a good old age, had accom- 

 plished the work of fully two men during 

 each year of his activities. 



His energy was boundless and untiring ; 

 he did with ease and facility whatever he 

 attempted, and rarely failed to accomplish 

 that which he had undertaken to do; he had 

 rare ability in selecting and training men 

 to do the work for which he had himself no 

 time, and in directing their labors towards 

 the speedy attainment of results. 



He acquired in early life those habits of 

 feverish and restless activity which are char- 

 acteristic of many of our countrj'men, and 

 which, though they contributed materially 

 to magnifj'^ the results which he accom- 

 plished within comparatively few years, 

 undoubtedly shortened the period of his 

 usefulness. 



The vast amount of work which he ac- 

 complished is shown by the catalogue of 

 his published papers, of which there are 

 more than 1,600, many of them of very 

 considerable extent, and the whole equiva- 

 lent to at least 20,000 octavo pages. 



Professor Riley was a man of singularly 

 striking appearance and agreeable presence. 

 No one who had once seen him could for- 

 get him. Active and graceful, his bearing 

 was such that, though perhaps not more 

 than five feet ten inches in height, he 

 seemed much taller. He never lost the 

 easy, independent carriage which he had 



acquired during his early life in the "West, 

 and there was always something uncon- 

 ventional and picturesque about his cos- 

 tume and appearance. The broad-brimmed, 

 sombrero-like hat, dark in winter, light in 

 summer, which he almost always wore, 

 seemed in keeping with his swarthy complex- 

 ion. He looked like an artist or a musician, 

 and indeed he possessed the artistic tempera- 

 ment in a high degree. As a youth he was 

 urged to make painting his profession. In 

 earlj^ years he drew thousands of illustrations 

 of insects, which were characterized as much 

 by beauty and delicacy of line as by minute 

 accuracy. In later and busier times his 

 taste for form and color were chiefly grati- 

 fied in his favorite recreation of gardening. 

 He was a most accomplished horticulturist, 

 and his garden on Washington Heights was 

 the best kept and most beautiful in the city, 

 and gave evidence of the control of a master 

 mind. 



Riley was a thorough American in habits 

 of thought and in sympathy, yet he often 

 visited the little village of Walton, on the 

 banks of the Thames, where he had passed 

 the earlier years of his life. In these visits 

 he learned something of his forefathers. 

 His peculiar Southern features, his warm 

 complexion, his dark eyes and hair, which 

 made manj' people suppose him to be a 

 Spaniard or an Italian, were derived from 

 a more northern Celtic race, his ancestors, 

 whose history he succeeded in tracing for 

 many generations, having migrated from 

 Wales to England at quite a recent day. 



His schoolboj' days were passed in France 

 and Germany, and he was but seventeen 

 when his restless spirit led him America. 



"He went West and settled with Mr. G. H. Ed- 

 wards, whom he had met in London and who had 

 made arrangements to open a stock farm in Kanka- 

 kee couutj', Illinois. Here, during three yeara, he 

 acquired that experience of Western agriculture that 

 can be gained only by actual farm work. Fond of all 

 life as manifested on the farm, young Riley devoted 

 himself enthusiastically to the calling he had chosen. 



