135 



a later edition may see all necessary changes made in conformity 

 with this beginning." 



New York Botanical Garden A. B. Stout 



The Years of John Torrey 



John Torrey. A story of North American botany. By Andrew Denny 

 Rodgers, III. 352 pp. Princeton University Press. 1942. $3.75. 



The journey of the Astorians during 1811 and 1812 began a 

 notable period in the exploration of western North America ; — 

 notable for many reasons, among which we may reckon the pres- 

 ence of two well known naturalists. Subsequent expeditions (mostly 

 under the auspices of the United States Government) likewise in- 

 cluded natural history among the fields to be explored ; the collec- 

 tion and description of the plants and animals and other products 

 of the country supplemented their purely geographical work. Speci- 

 mens flowed eastward in an increasing tide for identification and 

 preservation. Fortunately the prolixity of nature and the zeal of 

 collectors met their match in a few great naturalists who stayed at 

 home. Many North American plants went to William Jackson 

 Hooker at Kew ; but the bulk of them during many years were 

 classified by John Torrey. 



Torrey brought to this work acuity of perception and a talent 

 for organization (without which, indeed, it would not have been 

 brought to him). Though he was not himself a field botanist, 

 though he saw the western plants growing in their native places 

 only after his work was done, he labored to good purpose ; his clas- 

 sification has formed an adequate skeleton on which to drape the 

 flesh of later research. His was a purely descriptive science. In- 

 quiries into the physiology of plants, into causes and first prin- 

 ciples, even into the Darwinian theories when they appeared, seem 

 to have interested him little. But in the scope of his knowledge, in 

 his mastery of detail, in his grasp of relationships, Torrey is en- 

 titled to first rank among the leaders in American botany. 



Recognition was not slow in coming to such work, and both 

 labor and glory grew at the geometrical rate of the traditional snow- 

 ball. In his later years Torrey maintained a large correspondence 

 with botanists all over the world. He was instrumental in the es- 

 tablishment of the United States National Herbarium, and was one 



