Charles Christopher Parry. j 



We are indebted to Messrs. Dewey & Co. , publishers of the 

 Pacific Rural Press, for the accompanying portrait. 



Dr. C. C. Parry was born at Admington, Worcestershire, Eng- 

 land, August 28, 1823. When a lad of nine years he came to 

 America with his father's family. His parents settled on a farm 

 in Washington county, N. Y. and there he passed his boyhood. 

 He improved well the advantages afforded by the schools at that 

 place, and in earliest manhood he entered Union College, Sche- 

 nectady, N. Y., graduating in due time with full honors. In 

 the meantime he had taken up the study of medicine, prosecut- 

 ing it in connection with his other studies, until he was qualified 

 to practice. 



He had found at an early period that he possessed a longing 

 for the study of the sciences, especially a love for botany, and he 

 devoted himself at spare moments to the study of the vegetable 

 world about him. As he advanced in the study of this charming 

 science he grew to love it more, until its pursuit become an ab- 

 sorbing passion above all other aims in life. 



In the fall of 1846 the young doctor and scientist moved to 

 Iowa with his father's family, where he engaged in the practice 

 of medicine at Davenport for six or eight months. 



In May 1853, Dr. Parry was married to Miss Sarah M. Dal- 

 zell, who died five years later, leaving a daughter who has since 

 died. Dr. Parry was subsequently married to a lady of Wisconsin, 

 and she survives him. 



Dr. Parry's professional career was of short duration, the at- 

 tractions of forest and field proving more inviting to him that 

 the routine of a physician's life. He soon retired from the active 

 practice of medicine and devoted himself to what was to prove 

 his life work, the study of the western flora. 



In 1842 he accomplished his first botanical work in the region 

 of north eastern New York, while engaged in the study of med- 

 cine. In the five years thus occupied he spent one season in 

 central New York, and visited the Niagara Falls. During the 

 last two years of this period he made the acquaintance of Dr. 

 John Torrey, the renowned American botanist, whose aid and 

 encouragement to young botanists gave such an impetus to the 

 study in the early history of this science in the new world. To 

 the instruction and friendship of this good and truly great man, 

 Dr. Parry was always proud to ascribe much of his own success 

 in the same line of research; and he in turn freely aided his 

 younger cotemporaries, many of whom owe much to his personal 

 instructions and assistance. 



During 1847, the year following his arrival in Davenport, 

 Iowa, Dr. Parry was active in the study of the local flora, and 

 during the summer made an expedition to the central part of the 

 State, near Des Moines, with a government land surveying party 

 under the command of Lieut. J. Morehead. In the succeeding 

 year he was connected with Dr. David Dale Owen's geological 



