105 



property was turned over to Columbia College, and its use di- 

 verted from that of a botanical garden to that of highly profit- 

 able rentals. 



We cannot understand the botany of Hosack's time without a 

 brief glance at some of his contemporaries and immediate suc- 

 cessors, especially those who exerted local influence. The list 

 includes the names of some of the most honored of American 

 botanists. Biographical sketches of all are to be found in our 

 Bulletin file, so that I need not repeat the purely historical data, 

 but may speak of the character of these men and of their work, 

 in its relation to our subject. Foremost of them all was John 

 Torrey, whose name is commemorated, I hope permanently, in 

 that of our society. Following Dr. Hosack, he was the third of 

 the five men who, up to the present, have occupied the chair of 

 botany in Columbia College. His characteristics maybe expressed 

 in the terms, strong personal character, broad scholarship and 

 great intellectual ability. Although best known to us as a 

 botanist, yet thirty years of his life were those of a great teacher 

 and worker in chemistry at the U. S. Military Academy at West 

 Point, in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of this city, in 

 Princeton College, and as U. S. Assayer in the New York office. 

 Had the necessary facilities then existed in this country, it seems 

 likely that this man, combining such a great knowledge of botany 

 and chemistry, might here have developed important researches 

 in the chemistry of plants. As a matter of fact, his knowledge 

 of botany was acquired chiefly as a recreation in the hours of 

 leisure afforded by his other professional work. Yet Underwood 

 truly writes, " When the annals of American botany are finally 

 written, no name will have a more conspicuous position than that 

 of John Torrey." 



Almost before reaching manhood Torrey was one of the found- 

 ers of the New York Lyceum of Natural History, and was the 

 leader in publishing, through it, a catalogue of plants growing 

 within thirty miles of the city. Five years later he published the 

 first part of his Flora of the Northern and Middle Sections of the 

 United States, and later his Compendium on the same subject, im- 

 portant forerunners, in more than one way, of Gray's Manual. 



