Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Vasey, George

VASEY, George, botanist, b. near Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, 28 Feb., 1822. He came to this country when a child, and was graduated at Berkshire medical college, Pittsfield, Mass., in 1848. Settling in the practice of his profession in Illinois, he continued it for twenty years. In April, 1872, he was appointed botanist to the department of agriculture in Washington. His published works, issued under government auspices, include “A Descriptive Catalogue of the Native Forest Trees of the United States” (Washington, 1876); “The Grasses of the United States, a Synopsis of the Tribes, with Descriptions of the Genera” (1883); “The Agricultural Grasses of the United States” (1884); “A Descriptive Catalogue of the Grasses of the United States” (1885); “Report of an Investigation of the Grasses of the Arid Districts” (2 parts, 1886-'7); and “Grasses of the South” (1887).