252 



As Torrey had been one of the young men drawn together 

 by the magnetic personality of Dr. Mitchill, for the establishment 

 of the Lyceum, so he was in turn the center of attraction for the 

 group who, nearly sixty years later, founded the Torrey Botan- 

 ical Club. The leading spirit in this later movement was William 

 H. Leggett, who acted as editor of the Bulletin of the Club from 

 its commencement in 1870 until his death in 1882. 



One of the early botanists of the Lyceum was Professor C. S. 

 Rafinesque, and we may as well refer to him at this point, although 

 by nature and by fate he w^as a cosmopolitan. His father was a 

 French merchant, his mother was of German extraction, he was 

 born in a suburb of Constantinople and spent most of his early 

 years in Italy. He was a precocious child, becoming familiar 

 with various languages and more or less acquainted with various 

 sciences at an early age. As a young man he spent several years 

 in America ; then several years in Sicily ; in 181 5 he returned to 

 the United States, where he spent the remainder of his life. He 

 was in many ways the most striking figure to be found in Ameri- 

 can botany; brilliant, but erratic ; undervalued, misunderstood,, 

 and misrepresented by his contemporaries, yet deserving by his 

 rashness and the superficiality of his work many of the harsh 

 criticisms with which he was assailed. As professor in Transyl- 

 vania University, he was the first resident botanist west of the 

 Alleghenies. His later years were spent in Philadelphia, where 

 he died in poverty and almost friendless. Most of his numerous 

 publications might better never have been written, yet with the 

 dross are occasionally to be found grains of pure gold, and the 

 present generation is inclined to put a more just estimate upon 

 the work of Rafinesque than has hitherto prevailed. 



Amos Eaton was the first great popularizer of botany in 

 this country, and in tracing back the history of any American- 

 botanist of the past century we are as likely as not to find that 

 Eaton was, botanically speaking, his father or grandfather- 

 Eaton was a teacher, and was always full of enthusiasm of such 

 a contagious character that his pupils found it irresistible. 

 Wherever he went he inspired others with the same interest in 

 natural science that he felt himself. None of his predecessors- 



