John Torrey

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John Torrey about 1840
Torrey's signature

John Torrey (born August 15, 1796 in New York City , † March 11, 1873 there ) was an American botanist and chemist . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Torr. "

John Torrey trained as a doctor and initially earned his living holding several chemistry chairs , for example at the United States Military Academy and the College of New Jersey . From 1853 he was an assayer for the United States Mint . However, his most important achievements were in the field of botany . Torrey published several floral works on the flora of the United States , including the Flora of North America , co-authored with Asa Gray , and a flora of the state of New York . He also made a special contribution to the botanical processing of the plant material collected by exploration companies of the US government.

Live and act

Origin and education

John Torrey was the second son of nine children of William Torrey (1759-1831) and his wife Margaret Nichols (1768-1839). Through his father he met John Eatton Le Conte around 1810 , who aroused his interest in botany at an early age. In 1814 Torrey began his education at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in New York City , where Wright Post (1766-1828) and David Hosack (1769-1835) were among his teachers.

On February 24, 1817, Torrey was among the founders of the Lyceum of Natural History in the City of New York . Together with Caspar Wistar Eddy (1790–1828) and D'Jurco V. Knevala, he was entrusted by the management of the Lyceum with the task of creating a catalog of the plants growing within thirty miles of New York City, which was listed in 1819 under the Title A Catalog of the Plants Growing Within Thirty Miles of New York was published. In April 1818 Torrey graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons with a doctorate in medicine . With William Cooper (1798–1864) he then traveled to Philadelphia to inspect the herbaria there . The following month he arranged the herbarium of his teacher Hosack, which was kept at the New York Historical Society . In 1819 Torrey began practicing medicine , presumably in Greenwich Village . That year he also began work on the Flora of Northern and Middle States . For a short time he thought of taking part in the exploration expedition of Stephen Harriman Long (1784–1864). From 1821 to 1822 he ran a healing practice with Thomas Nuttall on Fulton Street , was also Hosack's assistant and began working on the Flora of North America .

Professor of Chemistry

In 1823 Torrey was elected to the Society of the Cincinnati . In 1824 he was elected President of the Lyceum of Natural History in the City of New York after serving as Vice President the year before. Torrey held the position of president until 1826. On April 20, 1824 he married Eliza Robertson Shaw (1806-1855) with the four children Jane Robertson (1825-1912), Eliza Shaw (1827-1913), Margaret Antoinette (1829-1904) and Herbert Gray (1838-1915) ) would have. In August of the same year, Torrey was named assistant physician to the United States Army and, on Le Conte's recommendation, was appointed professor of chemistry, geology, and mineralogy at the United States Military Academy at West Point . The first volume of his Flora of Northern and Middle States published in 1824 still used the Linnaeus classification system .

In the fall of 1827, Torrey was appointed professor of chemistry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. He gave chemistry classes at Williams College for the summer of 1828, followed by his popular subscriber chemistry classes published as Outlines of the lectures on chemistry in 1829 , and chemistry classes at the College of New Jersey in the summer of 1830 . In the fall, Torrey was appointed professor of chemistry there, an activity he carried out until 1854. On April 25, 1831, Torrey also became a lecturer in chemistry at the new College of Pharmacy at New York University .

Turning to botany

Front page of the unfinished Flora of North America , published jointly with Asa Gray

In his description of the plants collected west of the Mississippi River by Edwin James (1797–1861) , published in 1828, Torrey first used the natural plant systematics developed by Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu and Augustin-Pyrame de Candolle . In 1831 he prepared the first American edition of John Lindley's An Introduction to the Natural System of Botany , for which he wrote an appendix.

In September 1832, Torrey first met Asa Gray . Together they went on a research trip to the Pine Barrens of New Jersey . On October 5, 1832 Torrey was appointed professor of chemistry, botany, and mineralogy at New York University , but he gave up the position on November 9. From February to August 1833 Torrey toured Europe as a representative of New York University. While his wife and eldest daughter Jane were visiting relatives in Ireland , Torrey stayed in Paris for a month , paid a visit to the Isle of Wight and stopped in Glasgow , Edinburgh and London . In 1834 he hired Gray as his assistant. On July 1, 1836, New York Governor William L. Marcy appointed him as state botanist for the New York Natural History Survey. In the same year Gray became Torreys equal partner in the development of the Flora of North America and it appeared Torreys monograph on the North American sour grass family (Cyperaceae).

In 1839 Torrey was commissioned to prepare a flora for the state of New York . In 1841 he bought a house near Princeton , where he was lecturing on botany, which he moved with his family the following year and lived in until 1851. In 1843 both the two-volume Flora of New York State and the third and final part of the second volume of the Flora of North America appeared , which remained unfinished.

Torrey first came into contact with the exploration expedition in the western United States in November 1842 when he received the plants collected by John Frémont during the first expedition , which mapped the Oregon Trail from Council Bluffs to South Pass in Wyoming . On April 9, 1849, Torrey also agreed to describe the plants collected during the United States Exploring Expedition led by Charles Wilkes . Until his death he wrote a total of 18 such botanical reports.

Further work

On December 6, 1853, Torrey was assayer of the United States Mint and gave up his teaching duties in the following period. In 1856 Columbia College appointed him their trustee. Four years later, Torrey gave his herbarium , which contains about 40,000 specimens, and the 600 or so volumes of his book collection to Columbia College. From now on, he was allowed to live in a house on the college campus rent-free .

Torrey's last publication, which he wrote again with Asa Gray, was the revision of the Eriogonaceae family , published in 1870 , which today belongs to the knotweed family. At the end of January 1873 Torrey contracted pleurisy . He died on March 10, 1873. He was buried three days later in West Presbyterian Church ( 42nd Street ). His pallbearers were Asa Gray , Joseph Henry , Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard (1809-1889) and Cornelius Rea Agnew (1830-1888).

Awards and recognition

Member of scientific associations

In 1831 Torrey became a member of the Wernerian Natural History Society in Edinburgh, a Fellow of the Grand Ducal Society for all mineralogy in Jena and a member of the Royal Physiographical Society in Lund. In 1835 he became a member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina and the American Philosophical Society , in 1839 a foreign member of the Linnean Society of London and on October 10, 1841 a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1842 the Boston Society of Natural History named Torrey an honorary member. Torrey was one of the 50 founding members of the National Academy of Sciences, launched on March 3, 1863 .

Honors

On the recommendation of Benjamin Silliman and Eli Ives (1779–1861), Yale University awarded Torrey in 1823 the honorary title of Artium Magister . On the advice of Chester Dewey (1784-1867), Williams College also awarded him an honorary degree of Artium Magister two years later. On the recommendation of Edward Hitchcock , Torrey was awarded the title of Honorary Doctor of Law from Amherst College in 1845 .

The magazine Torreya (1901 to 1945) and the plant genus Torreya from the yew family (Taxaceae) are named after him. Likewise the Torrey Botanical Society , founded in 1860 under the name Torrey Botanical Club, America's oldest botanical society . Charles Christopher Parry named Torreys Peak in the Rocky Mountains after him in 1861 . The plant genera Torreycactus Doweld from the family of Cactaceae and Torreyochloa G.L. Church from the family of sweet grasses (Poaceae) are named after him.

Fonts (selection)

Books
  • A Catalog of Plants growing spontaneously within thirty miles of the City of New York . Albany 1819 (online) .
  • A Flora of the Northern and Middle Sections of the United States . T. and J. Swords, New York 1824 (online) .
  • A Compendium of the Flora of the Northern and Middle States, containing generic and specific Descriptions of all the Plants, exclusive of the Cryptogamia, hitherto found in the United States, north of the Potomac . SB Collins, New York 1826, (online) .
  • Outlines of the lectures on chemistry, delivered in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of the State of New York . 2nd edition, John Post, 1829.
  • Catalog of North American Genera of Plants, arranged according to the orders of Lindley's Introduction to the Natural System of Botany . In: John Lindley: An introduction to the Natural System of Botany: Or, A systematic View of the Organization, natural affinities, and geographical distribution of the whole vegetable kingdom; together with the uses of the most important species in medicine, the arts . G. & C. & H. Carvill, New York 1831 (online) .
  • A Flora of North America . 2 volumes, Wiley & Putnam, New York 1838– [1843] (online) . - with Asa Gray
  • A flora of the state of New-York: comprising full descriptions of all the indigenous and naturalized plants hitherto discovered in the state with remarks on their economical and medicinal properties . 2 volumes, Carroll and Cook, printers to the Assembly, Albany 1843 (online) .
  • Plantae Fremontianae; or Descriptions of Plants Collected by Colonel JC Frémont in California . Smithsonian Institution, Washington (DC) 1853 (online) .
Contributions to US government exploratory reports
  • Catalog of plants collected by Mr. Charles Geyer under the direction of Mr. IN Nicollet during the exploration of the region between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers . In: Report intended to illustrate a map of the hydrographical basin of the upper Mississippi river, made by IN Nicollet . Blair and Rives, Printers, Washington 1843, pp. 143-165 (online) .
  • Catalog of Plants collected by Lieutenant Frémont in his expedition to the Rocky Mountains . In: Report of the exploring expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the year 1842, and to Oregon and North California in the years 1843– '44, by Brevet Captain JC Frémont . Gales and Seaton, Printers, Washington 1845, pp. 81-98 (online) .
  • Note concerning the plants collected in the second expedition of Captain Fremont . In: Report of the exploring expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the year 1842, and to Oregon and North California in the years 1843-'44, by Brevet Captain JC Frémont . Gales and Seaton, Printers, Washington 1845, pp. 311-319 (online) .
  • Appendix 2. [Botany] . In: Notes of a military reconnoissance from Fort Leavenworth, in Missouri, to San Diego, California, including part of the Arkansas, Del Norte, and Gila rivers, made in 1846 . Wendell and van Benthuysen, Printers, Washington 1848, pp. 135-156 (online) .
  • Appendix 6. [List of Plants collected by Lieut. But] . In: Notes of a military reconnoissance from Fort Leavenworth, in Missouri, to San Diego, California, including part of the Arkansas, Del Norte, and Gila rivers, made in 1846 . Wendell and van Benthuysen, Printers, Washington 1848, pp. 406-414 (online) .
  • Botany . In: Exploration and survey of the valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah, including a reconnoissance of a new route through the Rocky Mountains, by Howard Stansbury . Lippincott, Grambo & Co., Philadelphia 1852 pp. 383-397 (online) .
  • Botany . In: Report of an expedition down the Zuni and Colorado Rivers, by Captain L. Sitgreaves . Beverly Tucker, Senate Printer, Washington 1854, pp. 155-178 (online) .
  • Report on the Botany of the Expedition . In: Report of Exploration of a Route for the Pacific Railroad, Near the Thirty-Second Parallel of Latitude, from the Red River to the Rio Grande, by Brevet Captain John Pope . Washington 1854, pp. 159-185, (online) . - with Asa Gray
  • Botany. Description of the plants collected during the expedition . In: Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana, in the year 1852, by Randolph B. Marcy . Beverly Tucker, Senate Printer, Washington 1854 pp. 267–289 (online)
  • Botanical Report upon the collections made by Captain Gunnison, Topographical Engineers, and Lieutenant EG Beckwith, Third Artillery, in 1854 . In: Report of explorations for a route for the Pacific Railroad, on the line of the forty-first parallel of north latitude, by Lieut. EG Beckwith . Washington 1855, pp. 119-132 (online) . - with Asa Gray
  • List and descriptions of the plants collected . In: Report of Explorations for Railroad Routes from San Francisco Bay to Los Angeles, California, West of the Coast Range, and from the Pimas Villages on the Gila to the Rio Grande, near the 32d Parallel of North Latitude, by Lieutenant John G. Park . Part 3. Washington 1856, pp. 7-22, 27-28 (online) .
  • Description of the Plants collected along the Route, by WP Blake, and at the Mouth of the Gila . In: Report of Explorations in California for Railroad Routes, to Connect with the Routes near the 35th and 32nd Parallels of North Latitude, by Lieutenant RS Williamson . Washington 1856 pp. 359-370 (online) .
  • Description of the general Botanical Collections . In: Route near the Thirty-Fifth Parallel, Explored by Lieutenant AW Whipple, Topographical Engineers, in 1853 and 1854 . Part 5, Washington 1857, pp. 61-182, (online) .
  • General Catalog of the Plants collected on the Expedition . In: Report of Lieutenant Henry L. Abbot, Corps of Topographical Engineers upon Explorations for a Railroad Route, the Sacramento Valley to the Columbia River, Made by Lieut. RS Williamson . Part 3, Washington 1857 pp. 65-93, (online) - I. Exogenous Plants with JS Newberry and Asa Gray
  • Botany of the Boundary . In: Report on the United States and Mexican boundary survey, made under the direction of the secretary of the Interior, by William H. Emory . Volume 2, Washington 1859, pp. 27-270, (online) .
  • Botany . In: Report upon the Colorado River of the West, explored in 1857 and 1858 by Lieutenant Joseph C. Ives . Part IV. Washington 1860 (online) . - with Asa Gray, George Thurber and George Engelmann
  • Phanerogamia of Pacific North America . In: United States Exploring Expedition. During the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842. Under the command of Charles Wilkes, USN Volume 17, Botany III, Philadelphia 1874, pp. 207-514.
Magazine articles
  • Notice of the Plants collected by Prof. DB Douglas, of West Point, in the expedition under Governour Cass, during the summer of 1820, around the great Lakes and the upper waters of the Mississippi . In: American Journal of Science and Arts . Volume 4, 1822, pp. 56-69 (online) .
  • Description and Analysis of a New Ore of Zinc . In: American Journal of Science and Arts . Volume 5, 1822, pp. 235-238 (online)
  • Description of a new Species of Usnea, from New South Shetland . In: American Journal of Science and Arts . Volume 6, 1823, pp. 104-106 (online) .
  • Description of some new or rare Plants from the Rocky Mountains, collected in July, 1820 by Dr. Edwin James . In: Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York . Volume 1, 1824, pp. 30-36 (online) .
  • Notice of a locality of Yenite in the United States . In: Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York . Volume 1, 1824, p. 51 (online)
  • An Account of the Columbite of Haddam, (Connecticut,) with Notices of several other North American Minerals . In: Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York . Volume 1, 1824, pp. 89-93 (online) .
  • Descriptions of some new Grasses collected by Edwin James, in the expedition of Major Long to the Rocky Mountains, in 1819-1820 . In: Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York . Volume 1, 1824, pp. 148-156 (online) .
  • Monograph of the North American species of Carex . In: Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York . Volume 1, Part 2, 1825, pp. 283-373 (online) . - with Lewis David von Schweinitz .
  • Some Account of a Collection of Plants made during a journey to and from the Rocky Mountains in the summer of 1820, by Edwin P. James, MD Assistant Surgeon, US Army . In: Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York . Volume 2, 1827, pp. 161-244 (online) .
  • Monograph of the North American Cyperaceae . In: Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York . Volume 3, 1836, pp. 239-443 (online) .
  • Experiments on the Condensation of Carbonic, Sulfurous, and Chloro-Cromic Acid Gases . In: American Journal of Science and Arts . Volume 35, 1839 pp. 374-375 (on-line) .
  • Discovery of the Vauquelinite, a rare ore of Chromium, in the United States . In: Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York . Volume 4, 1848, pp. 76-79 (online) .
  • An Account of several new Genera and Species of North American Plants . In: Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York . Volume 4, 1848, pp. 80-94 (online) .
  • Catalog of Plants of the State of New York, of which Specimens are Preserved in the Cabinet at Albany . In: Second Annual Report of the Regents of the University, on the Condition of the State Cabinet of Natural History, with Catalog of the Same . Albany 1849. pp. 41-64.
  • On some New Plants discovered by Col. Fremont, in California . In: Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science . 1851, pp. 190–193 (online)
  • On the Structure and Affinities of the Genus Batis of Linnaeus . In: Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science . 1851, pp. 405-406 (online) .
  • Plantae Fremontianae; or, Descriptions of plants collected by Col. JC Frémont in California . In: Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge . Volume 6, 1854, pp. 1-24 (online) .
  • Observations on the Batis maritima of Linnaeus . In: Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge . Volume 6, 1854, pp. 1-8 (online) .
  • On the Darlingtonia Californica, a new Species of Pitcher-Plant from Northern California . In: Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge . Volume 6, 1854, pp. 1-7 (online) .
  • Sur la Distribution Géographique des Sarracéniacées . In: La Belgique horticole . Volume 5, 1855, pp. 146-147 (online) .
  • Notice of several indigenous plants suitable for hedges . In: Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the year 1857. Agriculture . William A. Harris, Printer, Washington 1858, pp. 239-243 (online) .
  • A Revision of the Eriogoneae . In: Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . Volume 8, 1870, pp. 145-200 (online) . - with Asa Gray

literature

  • Nathaniel Lord Britton : Dr. Torrey as a botanist . In: Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club . Volume 27, Number 10, 1900, pp. 540-551 (JSTOR) .
  • Lawrence J. Crockett et al. a .: On the Trail of John Torrey . In: Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club . Vol. 113-119, 1986-1992.
    • # 1 . Volume 113, Number 1, 1986, pp. 53-56 (JSTOR) .
    • # 2 . Volume 113, Number 2, 1986, pp. 183-184 (JSTOR) .
    • # 3 . Volume 113, Number 3, 1986, p. 307 (JSTOR) .
    • # 4 . Volume 113, Number 4, 1986, pp. 440-442 (JSTOR) .
    • # 5 . Volume 114, Number 1, 1986, pp. 60-63 (JSTOR) .
    • # 6 . Volume 114, Number 2, 1987, pp. 191-194 (JSTOR) .
    • # 7 . Volume 114, Number 3, 1987, pp. 336-337 (JSTOR) .
    • # 8 . Volume 114, Number 4, 1987, pp. 450-453 (JSTOR) .
    • # 9 . Volume 115, Number 2, 1988, pp. 122-125 (JSTOR) .
    • # 10 . Volume 115, Number 3, 1988, pp. 221-228 (JSTOR) .
    • # 11 . Volume 115, Number 4, 1988, pp. 306-313 (JSTOR) .
    • # 12 . Volume 116, Number 1, 1989, pp. 65-74 (JSTOR) .
    • # 13 . Volume 116, Number 2, 1989, pp. 187-192 (JSTOR) .
    • # 14 . Volume 116, Number 3, 1989, p. 289 (JSTOR) .
    • # 15 . Volume 116, Number 4, 1989, pp. 395-400 (JSTOR) .
    • # 16 . Volume 117, Number 1, 1990, pp. 57-63 (JSTOR) .
    • # 17 . Volume 117, Number 2, 1990, pp. 178-183 (JSTOR) .
    • # 18 . Volume 117, Number 4, 1990, pp. 459-468 (JSTOR) .
    • # 19 . Volume 118, Number 2, 1991, pp. 201-210 (JSTOR) .
    • # 20 . Volume 119, Number 1, 1992, pp. 77-87 (JSTOR) .
  • A. Hunter Dupree: Torrey, John . In: Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography . Volume 13, Charles Scribner's Sons, Detroit 2008, pp. 432-433, (on-line) .
  • Christine Chapman Robbins: John Torrey (1796–1873). His Life and Times . In: Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club . Volume 95, Number 6, 1968, pp. 515-645 (JSTOR) .
  • Andrew Denny Rodgers: John Torrey: A Story of North American Botany . Princeton 1942.

Web links

Commons : John Torrey  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member entry by John Torrey at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on June 18, 2016.
  2. ^ Robert Zander : Concise dictionary of plant names . Ed .: Fritz Encke, Günther Buchheim, Siegmund Seybold. 13th edition. Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-8001-5042-5 .
  3. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Torrey, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American botanist and chemist
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1796
PLACE OF BIRTH New York , NY
DATE OF DEATH March 11, 1873
Place of death New York , NY