CHARLES CHRISTOPHER PARRY 



1 823- 1 890 

 Lilium Parryi — ^WATSON 



In the year 1823 one of the many English- 

 born American botanists came — a little lad of 

 ten — from Gloucester, England, to Washington 

 County, New York. " Here," says his biogra- 

 pher, Dr. C. H. Preston, " his boyhood was 

 passed " — how passed, and when his taste for 

 botany developed, we want to know but are not 

 told. He entered Union College, at Schenec- 

 tady, and graduated with honors, beginning the 

 study of medical botany in his undergraduate 

 years, and subsequently receiving his medical 

 degree from Columbia College. 



Coming west to Davenport in the fall of 1846, 

 he began practice, but soon discovered that his 

 natural tastes ranged far from disease and drew 

 him to the treasures of wood and field. 



Thenceforward his life story is interwoven 

 with that of three of his spiritual kindred, Tor- 

 rey, Gray and George Engelmann, and presents, 

 apart from the scientific side, a wonderful record 

 of travel and toil. 



In the summer of 1847, he accompanied a 

 United States surveying party, under Lieut. J. 



180 



