the United States assay-offire, a post which he held, con- 
stantly dischai’ffing its duties, till his death. He was also, 
for the latter years of his life, a trustee .and a professor of 
Columbia College, to which, iu 18611, lie presented his large 
botanical library, .and his e.N:tensive and valuable herbanuni. 
Pie however ret.ained the use of these during his life-time, 
and making his home near them, in the college wheie they 
were deposited, spent many hours daily in the last years of 
his life, iu the study of his favorite science ; for while his 
official duties have made him known to the world outside as 
a cheu'ist aiul mineralogist, it is on his botanical labors that 
his scientific fame will chiefly rest. 
He early gave himself to the study of botany, and as long 
ago as 1819 published a, catalogue of the plants growing 
within a radius of thirty miles of Xew York. Fifty years 
later his botanical friends celebrated the anniversary of its 
publication, by a banquet given to the Nestor ol their sci- 
ence, in the decorations of wiiioh the Torreya taxifolia, 
belonging to a new genus of Ta.vacea which had been nameil 
for him, was not forgotten. A Flora ot the Northern and 
Middle States in 1824, a remarkable monograph ot the 
Cyperacea in 1836, the Flora, of the State of New York, in 
two volumes, in 1842-44, with various Botanical Reports 
of the results of United States e.'cploring expediUoiis from 
1828 to 1858, comprise the chief part of his published con- 
tributions to botany. He moreover edited with his friend. 
Dr. Asa Gray, the Flora of North America, and has, we 
believe, left behind him a large amount of manuscript notes 
on botanical subjects, nearly ready for publication. 
But while thus doing such a vast amount of original work 
in this department of natural history, he was wont to^ .say 
playfully, that botany was his amusement, and chemistry 
and mineralogy his profession, as they had been his fiist love. 
In the early part of his professional life, lie published several 
valuable papers relating to these studies, including observa- 
tions and analyses of various American minerals, but 
although he never abandoned such pursuits, and habitually 
3 
spent more or less time in ciiemical work in his laboratory, 
he in subsequent years gave us little or nothing of his 
results. Plis great familiarity with tlie literature of chem- 
istry and mineralogy, liis fertile mind, and his acute powers 
of observation, fitted him nevertheles.s, to be an investigator 
of a high order. The patient scrutiny with which he Mam- 
ined any new mineral siihstance, calling iu the aid alike of 
cheuristry and the microscope, was tlio delight of those who 
were admitted to his confidence. That he did not ehahorate 
the results thus obtained and give them publicity, is to be 
ascribed in part to his great modesty, wliich led him to 
under-rate the value of his observations, and in part to the 
tact that his time out of the laboratory was chietly given to 
his botanical investigations, wliich divided his allegiance, and 
dejirived mineralogy and chemistry ol many precious con- 
tributions which, it is to be feared, are now lost, and must 
await a second discoverer. An example of this occurred in 
a long and carefully written letter, containing observations 
on the viivieties of iridosmine from ovir Pacific coast, sent to 
the writer of this notice, with specimens for verification, 
some two years since. When urged to piihlisli his facts. Dr. 
Torrey declined, saying tliat they were too in significant. 
The moral nature of Dr. Torrey was one ot rare excel- 
lence and beauty. An engaging frankness, a genial humor, a 
generous sympathy and a child-like simplicity ot maunei, 
witli a luqipy religious faith, endeared him to all who were 
so fortunate as to'he admitted to his intimacy; and he was 
always ready to extend a heliiing baud to young aspirants m 
science, who never sought in vain his council or his anl. Ho 
retained to the last a lively interest in all his scicntihc pur- 
suits. Such a man could never grow old in heart, nor vv eie 
Ills powers apparently enfeebled by advancing age. In 
November last, the writer listened to him vvdth delight, as he 
turned from learned and judicious comments on a recently 
published chemical treatise, to his microsco].io studios on 
certain sands, where his keen vision had just made discov- 
eries which had eluded the scrutiny of younger eyes; nor 
