VAN RENSSELAER 1177 VASEY Van Rensselaer, Jeremiah (1793-1871) Icrcmiah 'an RLiisbclaer was born in Green- bush, Rensselaer County, New York, in 1793. He was a descendant of the old Dutch settlers who, in 1637, founded the colony of Rensse- laerwyck. After completing his academic studies at Yale College, in 1813, he went to New York and worked under his uncle, Dr. Archibald Bruce (q.v.), where he acquired that taste for the natural sciences for which in after years he was distinguished. After get- ting his M. D. from the Vermont Academy of Medicine in 1823, he went abroad and spent three years in attendance upon the lectures and hospitals in Edinburgh, London and Paris. Upon his return to New York he practised ex- tensively. He was for many years correspond- ing secretary of the New York Lyceum of Nat- ural History, and during 1895 delivered a course of lectures before the New York Athe- naeum with great success. In 1852 he retired from active pursuits to the care of his estates at Greenbush. He returned to New York after a visit abroad in feeble health, and a few months later, in 1871, died of pneumonia. Med. Reg. of N. Y., 1871, vol. ix. Vasey, George (1822-1893) George Vase}', botanist, was born at Scar- borough, Yorkshire, England, February 28, 1822, and died at Washington, D. C, March 4, 1893. His parents brought him to America when he was only a year old, and his boyhood was spent in the vicinity of Oriskany, Oneida County, New York. His interest in botany, beginning when he was not more than thirteen years old, and fostered by his early acquaint- ance with P. D. Knieskern (q.v.), of Oriskany, remained strong throughout his Lie. Even be- fore he studied medicine, he was in corre- spondence with Torrey, Gray, Dewey, Carey, and other American botanists of the time, with most of whom he afterward became personally acquainted. His medical education was secured at Berk- shire Medical Institution, Pittsfield, Mass., where he graduated in 1846. After a year or two of practice at Dexter, New York, he re- moved in 1848 to Illinois, where he spent twen- ty years of his professional life, mostly at El- gin and Ringwood. In 1868, as botanist, he ac- companied an exploring expedition to Colo- rado, under the command of Major John W. Powell ; the following year he was in Colorado again upon a similar mission. During 1870 he was associated with Prof. Charles V. Riley as editor of the Aiitrrican Entomologist and Botanist and the numerous brief notes con- tributed to the pages of this magazine seem to have been his first printed scientific papers, although he was then nearly fifty years old. Before the end of the same year he became the curator of the museum of the State Nat- ural History Society of Illinois at Normal. It was in 1872 that Vasey was appointed botanist of the United States Departiucnt of Agriculture, and removed to Washington, D. C, where he spent the last twenty years of his life. These were his productive years, as far as scientific publications were concerned, but of course the high quality of his work during this period was made possible only by the years of quiet, faithful preparation which had preceded them. He devoted himself pri- marily to the study of the forest trees and the grasses of the LTnited States, and nearly all of his papers treated of these two groups of plants. In addition to his position as botanist of the Department of Agriculture, he served as curator of the United States National Herbarium, and his crowning achievement was the building up of this great collection, which became under his guidance one of the finest herbaria in America, and is now one of the greatest in the world. Besides his numerous contributions to scien- tific magazines, Dr. Vasey supplied lists of plants to various government reports, and his most important works were all issued as oflicial documents. They were : "A catalogue of the forest trees of the United States" (1876) ; "The grasses of the United States" (1883) ; "The agricultural grasses of the United States" (1884; second edition, 1889); "A descriptive catalogue of the grasses of the LTnited States, including especially the grass collections at the New Orleans Exposition" (1885) ; and "Illustrations of North American grasses" (2 volumes, in 4 parts, 1890-93). Many species of plants bear Vasey's name, and two genera have been named in his honor: the one called Vaseya by Thurber in 1863 and that named Vaseyanthiis by Cogniaux in 1891. The former was based upon a grass from the Rocky Mountain region, now re- garded merely as a species of the old genus Miihlenhergia, but the name Vaseyanthiis has been more fortunate; it is a genus of gourds, and three species are now known, all natives of lower California. Dr. Vasey was a quiet, modest man, digni- fied yet unobtrusive. His gentle and kindly disposition, and his readiness to assist and encourage ounger I)otanists, made many friends. He was twice married; his second
