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Samuel Botsford Buckley and John Torrey correspondence, 1838-1883

by: Buckley, S. B.(Samuel Botsford),1809-1884

Publication date: 1838

Collection: nybgtorrey; biodiversity; NY_Botanical_Garden

Contributor: New York Botanical Garden, LuEsther T. Mertz Library

Language: English

John Torrey Papers (PP), Archives, The New York Botanical Garden

Correspondence from Samuel Botsford Buckley to John Torrey, dated 1838-1883. Buckley's letters, full of colorful detail and news of mutual aquaintances as well as questions of botanical identification, come from numerous locations around the United States: Alabama, New York, North Carolina, Florida, and Texas, where Buckley ultimately settled. In Alabama Buckley collects plants-- he sends boxes to Torrey and hopes to sell others in Europe-- and digs for fossils, eventually unearthing the skeleton of a Basilosaurus (he calls it Zygodon) which proves to be more of a burden than a treasure. After over a year of trying to find a buyer for the skeleton he declares to Torrey, "I am heartily tired of the Zygodon." A miserable expedition to Florida to collect plants and other natural specimens is described in detail; after returning home and suffering bouts of recurring fever Buckley decides to give up his medical aspirations altogether as his financial situation has rendered his acquiring a trade unnecessary. Also included are four letters from Buckley to Benjamin Braman and Nathaniel Lord Britton of the Torrey Botanical Club, written in 1883 after Torrey's death, concerning a shipment of plants Buckley sent from Texas for the club's herbarium. Obsolete and unresolved plant and animal names include Hopea tinctoria, Saponaria vaccaria, and Zygodon (Owens)

Digitized under grant #PW-234827-16 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)

Finding aid for the John Torrey papers available from the LuEsther T. Mertz Library, New York Botanical Garden and online

Abstract: Correspondence from Samuel Botsford Buckley to John Torrey, dated 1838-1883. Buckley's letters, full of colorful detail and news of mutual aquaintances as well as questions of botanical identification, come from numerous locations around the United States: Alabama, New York, North Carolina, Florida, and Texas, where Buckley ultimately settled. In Alabama Buckley collects plants-- he sends boxes to Torrey and hopes to sell others in Europe-- and digs for fossils, eventually unearthing the skeleton of a Basilosaurus (he calls it Zygodon) which proves to be more of a burden than a treasure. After over a year of trying to find a buyer for the skeleton he declares to Torrey, "I am heartily tired of the Zygodon." A miserable expedition to Florida to collect plants and other natural specimens is described in detail; after returning home and suffering bouts of recurring fever Buckley decides to give up his medical aspirations altogether as his financial situation has rendered his acquiring a trade unnecessary. Also included are four letters from Buckley to Benjamin Braman and Nathaniel Lord Britton of the Torrey Botanical Club, written in 1883 after Torrey's death, concerning a shipment of plants Buckley sent from Texas for the club's herbarium. Obsolete and unresolved plant and animal names include Hopea tinctoria, Saponaria vaccaria, and Zygodon (Owens).