416 John Torrey. 
add a few southern species at the close of his own Monograph 
of the order. 
About this time, namely in the year 1836, upon the organiza- 
tion of a geological survey of the State of New York upon an 
extensive plan, Dr. Torrey was appointed Botanist, and was 
required to prepare a Flora of the State. A laborious under- 
taking it proved to be, involving a heavy sacrifice of time, and 
postponing the realization of long-cherished plans. But in 
1843, after much discouragement, the Flora of the State of 
New York, the largest if by no means the most important of 
Dr. Torrey’s works, was completed and published, in two large 
quarto volumes, with 161 plates. No other State of the Union 
has produced a Flora to compare with this. The only thing to 
be regretted is that it interrupted, at a critical period, the prose- 
cution of a far more important work. _ 
Early in his career Dr. Torrey had resolved to undertake a 
general flora of North America, or at least of the United States, 
arranged upon the natural system, and had asked Mr. Nuttall 
to join him, who, however, did not consent. At that time, 
when little was known of the regions west of the valley of the 
Mississippi, the ground to be covered and the materials at hand 
were of comparatively moderate compass; and in aid of the 
northern part of it, Sir William Hooker's Flora of British 
America—founded upon the rich collections of the Arctic 
explorers, of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s intelligent officers, 
and of such hardy and enterprising pioneers as Drummond and 
Douglas,—was already in progress. At the actual inception of 
the enterprise, the botany of Eastern Texas was opened by 
Drummond's collections, as well as that of the coast of Cali- 
fornia by those of Douglas, and afterward those of Nuttall. 
As they clearly belonged to our own phyto-geographical prov- 
ince, Texas and California were accordingly annexed botanic 
ally before they became so politically. : 
While the field of botanical operations was thus enlarging; 
the time which could be devoted to it was restricted. In addi- 
tion to his chair in the Medical College, Dr. Torrey had felt 
obliged to accept a similar one at Princeton College, and to all 
was now added, as we have seen, the onerous post of State 
Botanist. It was in the year 1886 or 1837 that he invited the 
