John Torrey. 417 
writer of this notice—then pursuing botanical studies under 
his auspices and direction—to become his associate in the Flora 
of North America. In July aud in October, 1838, the first 
two parts, making half of the first volume, were published. 
The great need of a full study of the sources and originals of 
the earlier-published species was now apparent; so, during the 
following year, his associate occupied himself with this work in 
the principal herbaria of Europe. The remaining half of the 
first volume appeared in June, 1840. The first part of the sec- 
ond volume followed in 1841; the second in the spring of 
1842; and in February, 1843, came the third and the last; for 
Dr. Torrey’s associate was now also immersed in professorial 
duties and in the consequent preparation of the works and col- 
lections which were necessary to their prosecution. 
From that time to the present the scientific exploration of 
the vast interior of the continent has been actively carried on, 
and in consequence new plants have poured in year by year 
in such numbers as to overtask the powers of the few working 
botanists of the country, nearly all of them weighted with pro- 
fessional engagements. The most they could do has been to 
put collections into order in special reports, revise here and 
there a family or a genus monographically, and incorporate new 
materials into older parts of the fabric, or rough-hew them for 
portions of the edifice yet to be constructed. In all this Dr. 
Torrey took a prominent part down almost to the last days of 
his life. Passing by various detached and scattered articles 
upon curious new genera and the like, but not forgetting three 
admirable papers published in the Smithsonian Contributions 
to Knowledge (Plante Fremontianz, and those on Batis and 
Darlingtonia), there is a long series of important, and some of 
them very extensive, contributions to the reports of govern- 
ment explorations of the western country,—from that of Long’s 
expedition already referred to, in which he first developed his 
powers, through those of Nicollet, Fremont, and Emory, Sit- 
§reaves, Stansbury, and Marcy, and those contained in the 
ampler volumes of the Surveys for Pacific Railroad routes, 
down to that of the Mexican Boundary, the botany of which 
forms a bulky quarto volume, of much interest. Even at the 
last, when he rallied transiently from the fatal attack, he took 
