192 BOTANICAL NEWS. 
and it is said had made large collections towards a Flora re ~ district. 
ent of Mr. 
did not, howevor, ever go deeply into the philosophy of the science, 
or contribute anything which entitles him to rank among those who 
have “spay Botany by origina 
now only allude to the death on May 18th, at an advanced 
age, of Ale ander Irvine, oe name has been familiar to British 
botanists for “the last forty yea We hope to give a sketch of his 
botanical work, which covers so ae a period, and has had considerable 
fenton in spreading a more general knowledge of the science, in 
our next number. 
By the kindness of Prof. A. Gray, we have had the gi ier | 
of reading his biographical notice (which appears in Nillim 
Journal for June) of the late Dr. John Torrey, whose death we re- 
corded in the last number. Space will not permit us to quote more 
grapher 
from the fatal “itack, he took in hand the manuscript o 
rate report on the plants collected along our Pacific coast in Admiral 
Wilkes’s celebrated expedition, which he had prepared fully a dozen 
years ago, and which (except as to the plates) remains still unpub- 
lished through no fault of his. There would have been more to 
add, perhaps of equal importance, if “ Torrey had been as ready 
to complete and publish, as he was to investigate, annotate, and 
sketch. Through undue diffidence and a soa desire for a greater 
perfection than was at the time attainable, many interesting ob- 
servations have from time to time been anticipated by other bota- 
nists. All this botanical work, it may be observed, has reference 
and separate materials and component parts, w e and others 
had wrought upon, might some ny be brought tie ther in a com- 
pleted system of American’ Bota t r s to be seen whether 
his surviving associate of nearly forty years will be able to complete 
the edifice. To do this will be to supply the most pressing want of 
the science, and to raise the fittest monument to Dr. Torrey’s memory 
imate o i 
usy "> abapsna life. . igh years ago he was sent 
f 
plants which he had himself named fifty yea rs before, when the bokanly 
ned.’’ a 
of the Colorado Rocky Mountains was first opene 
