JOHN TORREY 1 37 



Mitchell ' and David Hosack.' Being endowed 

 with unusual natural gifts, he quickly forged 

 ahead. He took his medical degree in 18 18 with 

 a thesis on Dysentery, and by 18 17 had already 

 presented to the Lyceum of Natural History — 

 of which he was one of the founders — his Cata- 

 logue of Plants growing within thirty miles of 

 New York (1819), and enjoyed as correspond- 

 ents such men as Sir James Edward Smith,' Nut- 

 tall," and von Schweinitz.' 



About the time Elliott's Sketch of the Botany 

 of South Carolina and Georgia was being pub- 

 lished, Torrey conceived a similar systematic 

 work on The Flora of the North and Middle 

 Sections of the United States, and got out Volume 

 I by the summer of 1824. It showed the rare 

 power of setting forth details in delicate sepa- 

 rateness, yet as a comprehensive entirety. 



In 1824 he was settled at the Military Acad- 

 emy at West Point with a bride, Elizabeth Rob- 

 inson Shaw, and as Professor of Chemistry, Min- 

 eralogy and Geology. The Flora did not extend 

 to a second volume, but ended in a pocket " Com- 

 pendium " in 1826, for Torrey rightly foresaw 

 that " the natural system was not longer to remain 



'Samuel Latham Mitchell, surgeon, 1764-1831. 

 * David Hosack, surgeon, 1769-1835. 

 "James Edward Smith, botanist, London, 1759-1828. 

 "Thomas Nuttall, botanist-explorer, 1784-1859. 

 ' Lewis David von Schweinitz, D. D., 1780-1834. 



