Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/910

NAME PARRY PARRY receiving his M. D. from Columbia College in 1846. Coming west and to Davenport, Iowa, in the fa'J of 1846, he entered into practice, but soon discovered that all his natural tastes and instincts led directly away to the un- vexed, blossoming solitudes of nature. His earliest collecting had been done in the attractive floral region about his home in Northeastern New York, in the summer of 1842 and the four years following; and now again, he employed much of the season of 1847 in making a collection of the wild flowers about Davenport, of which, with the dates of finding, he has left a manuscript list. Those of us who knew him well in after years can readily picture the brisk, dark-complexioned, though blue-eyed youth, symmetrically but slightly built and some- what below the medium height, in his soli- tary quest by riverside and deep ravine, over wooded bluft' and prairie expanse, for the treasures which were more to him than gold — for such early friends as "the prairie prim- rose, the moccasin-flower, and the gentian," which in later years he complained had been quite driven Out by "the blue-grass and white clover." In the course. of that summer, also, he accompanied a United States surveying party, under Lieut. J. Morehead, on an excursion into Central Iowa, in the vicinity of the pres- ent state capital. From this time on (except for a shott time while connected with the Mexican Boundary Survey, when he dis- charged the duties of assistant surgeon) the physician was merged in the naturalist. He was almost continuously in the field collect- ing, but Davenport remained his home. Here, in 1853, he married Sarah M. Dalzell, who, dying five years later, left with him an only child, a daughter who died at an early age. In 18S9 he was married again — to Mrs. E. R. Preston of Westford, Connecticut, who through the more than thirty years of their union entered helpfully into all his works and plans, assisting him in his study and often accompanying him to the field. Dr. Parry gives in "Proc, Davenport Acad, of Sci., vol. ii," a succinct, chronological ac- count of his work up to 1878. For more than thirty years the greater part of his time had been spent in observing and col- lecting — along the St. Peters and up the St. Croix; across the Isthmus to San Diego, to the junction of the Gila and Colorado, along the southern boundary line and up the coast as far as Monterey; through Texas to El Paso, to the Pimo settlements on the Gila, and along the Rio Grande; in the mountains of Colorado, to which and to those of Cali- fornia he returned again and again in the pursuit of his special study, the Alpine Flora of North America ; across the continent with a Pacific railroad surveying party by way of the Sangre de Christo Pass, through New Mexico and Arizona, through the Tehachapi Pass, through the Tulare and San Joaquin Valleys to San Francisco ; through the Wind River district to the Yellowstone National Park; in the Valley of the Virgen and about Mt. Nebo, Utah ; about San Bernardino, Cali- fornia, and in the arid regions stretching to the eastward ; and in Mexico about San Luis Potosi, Saltillo, and Monterey. The winter of 1852-1853 was spent in Wash- ington, in the preparation of his report as botanist to the Mexican Boundary Survey; and the j'ears from 1869 to 1871 inclusive, while botanist to the United States Agri- cultural Department, were also passed chiefly at the capital, employed in arranging the e-xtensive botanical collections from vari- ous government explorations, which had ac- cumulated at the Smithsonian Institution. During this period, also, he visited, in his official capacity, the Royal Gardens and her- baria at Kew, England, and was attached as botanist to the Commission of Inquiry which visited San Domingo early in 1871. In 1879. being called to the East by the illness and death of his father, he did little if any work in the field. In 1880, as special agent of the Forestry Department of the United States Census Office, he accompanied Dr. Engelmann and Professor Sargent in. an expedition to the valley of the Columbia and the far Northwest. Wintering in California he spent the following year in that state, making numerous collecting trips north and south, including a trip to the Yosemite in June. In January and February, 1883, he made two camping trips into Lower California ; then, going to San Francisco, made numer- ous excursions from that point, and returned to Davenport in September. In June, 1884, he sailed a second time for England, return- ing in August of the following year, after spending much time at Kew, and visiting other herbaria and gardens on the Continent. The summer of 1886 he spent partly with friends in Wisconsin, partly in the quiet enjoyment of his Iowa home. But even when resting, his mind did not rest— his won- derfully voluminous correspondence went on,