_ thona:of new Grasses from the Rocky Mountains : 
42 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
























cause it may be of interest to some to see it, but mainly because its timed 3 
Iam aware that on occasions like the present it is customary for the | 
speaker to assume that the hearers are quite in doubt as to the person 3 
spoken of, and to relieve their minds only at the close of his speech, by i 
announcing the name of the one who has been eulogized. Unskilled iz a 
pap jaian of ar table orator, and quite sure of being unable to keep 4 
a state of suspense, I go directly to — point and say 
=p author of the catalogue is Doctor Jonn Torr 
e look through the pages of the ee we are astonished at its 
se or and wonder that a mere youth could a accomplished the. 
eut amount of preparatory labor necessary to the 7 
In imagination we can look back over the attak on half century, a 
see the young enthusiast PSOEn in localities that are to be found. 
only in this catalogue. The “swamp behind the Botanic Garden,” 
the ‘‘bog-meadows near Greenwich” have lon ng ago been built over, al 
Love-lane is now a paved street. The station here recorded for Draba 
Caroliniana has ceased to be available to the eet of the prema day, 
as that plant no longer grows, according to the catalogue, E 
fields about Canal street.” Not only have localities disappeared, but those — 
whose names are associated with them, and who are recorded as having 
contributed material to the catalogue, have passed away also. Mitch- 
ell, Nuttall, Rafinesque, Eddy, LeConte, Cooper, and others, while they 
live in the memory of a few of those present, are to the most of us known | 
only by their works. From this catalogue as an initial point, let us 
briefly survey fe si ied half century with reference to the botanic 
- works of its au 
In 1820, Seis edie in Silliman’s Journal, vol. 4, A Notice of Plants 
collected by Capt. N. Douglass around the Great Lakes at the Head-waters 
of the Mississi; 
In 1823, the Annals of the New York Lyceum of Natural History co 
tained the first instalment of the many precious contributions made | 
the author to our knowledge of the plants of the far West. Its title 
Descriptions of some new or rare Plants Jrom the Rocky Mountains, collect 
by Dr. Edwin James. 
In 1824 was published, A Filara of the Northern and Middle United Stat 
or a Systematic Arrangeme nt and Description of all the Plants heretofore 
o 
ve 
work was published, and as a portion of the edition was destroyed 
fire, it is now only rarely to be met with. It contains over five hund 
pages, and includes the first twelve classes of the Linnean syaa. :. 
In the same year, 1824, we find in the Annals of the Lyceum, Deseri 
a is and tha pata OE 
_ Dr. Torrey appears as editor and joint author with Schweinitz, of A 
ograph of the North American n Species of Carex. 

