218 LIFE AND LABORS OF PROF. JOHN TORREY. 



entific inquiry would never be inimical to tlie Cliristian religion, which 

 he held with an untroubled faitb, and illustrated most naturally and 

 unpretendingly in all his life and conversation. In this, as well as in 

 the simplicity of his character, he much resembled Faraday. 



Dr. Torrey was an honorary or corresponding member of a goodly 

 number of the scientific societies of Europe, and was naturally connected 

 with all prominent institutions of the kind in this country. He was 

 chosen into the American Academy in the year 1841. He was one of the 

 cori^orate members of the IS'ational Academy at Washington. He pre- 

 sided in his turn over the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science. He was twice, for considerable periods, president of the 

 ISTew York Lyceum of Natural History, which was in those days one of 

 the foremost of our scientific societies. It has been said of him that the 

 sole distinction on which he prided himself was his membership in the 

 Order of the Cincinnati, the only honor in this country which comes by 

 inheritance. 



As to the customary testimonial which the botanist receives from his fel- 

 lows, it is fortunate that the first attempts were nugatory. Almost in his 

 yoiith a genus was dedicated to him by his correspondent Sprengel : this 

 proved to be a Clerodendroiij misunderstood. A second, proposed by 

 Eafinesque, was founded on an artificial dismemberment of Gypretis. 

 The ground was clear, therefore, when, thirty or forty years ago, a new 

 and remarkable evergreen tree was discovered in our own Southern 

 States, which it was at once determined should bear Dr. Torrey's name. 

 More recently a congener was found in the noble forests of California. 

 Another species had already been recognized in Japan, and lately a fourth 

 in the mountains of Northern China. All four of them have been intro- 

 duced, and are greatly prized as ornamental trees in Europe ; so that, all 

 round the world, Torreya taxifoUa, Torreya Galifornica^ Torreya nuci- 

 fera^ and Torreya grandis — as well as his own important contributions 

 to botany, of w^hich they are a memorial — sliould keep our associate's 

 memory as green as their own perpetual verdure. 



