TORRES VEDRAS TORREYA 807 Toledo), and a code was promulgated by which the Spanish inquisition was afterward gov- erned. Jews and Moors were expelled under his control, and he so multiplied autos de fe that Alexander VI. intervened and gave him four colleagues to moderate his zeal. TORRES VEDRAS, a town of Portugal, 25 m. N. N. W. of Lisbon, on the left bank of the Sizandro; pop. about 4,200. Part of its an- cient walls and an old fortress still remain. In the vicinity are an aqueduct with Gothic arches and the noted convent of Varratojo. It has four churches, two hospitals, a Latin school, and a considerable trade in wine. It gave its name to the defensive lines erected by "Wellington in 1810 on a range of heights in its neighborhood, which took nearly a year for their completion, and set the army of Mas- sena at defiance. TORREY, John, an American botanist and chemist, born in New York, Aug. 15, 1796, died there, March 10, 1873. He graduated at the New York college of physicians and sur- geons in 1818. While a student there he was one of the founders of the New York lyceum of natural history, of which he was for many years president. In 1824 he became professor of chemistry, mineralogy, and geology at West Point, and in 1827 was called to the chair of chemistry in the college of physicians and sur- geons, which he held till 1854. He was also at the same time professor of chemistry in the college of New Jersey; and in 1836 he was appointed botanist of the geological survey of the state of New York. In 1854 he became United States assayer at New York, which office he held until his decease. Though bet- ter known as a botanist, he was a profound chemist, and was the frequent confidential adviser of the government, especially in mat- ters relating to coinage and currency. Dr. Torrey's first publication was " Catalogue of Plants growing spontaneously within Thirty Miles of the City of New York" (Albany, 1819). In 1824 he published the first volume of the "Flora of the Northern and Middle States." This was not continued, but in 1826 he gave in a " Compendium," in a condensed form, the materials he had accumulated. In 1838 he began the publication, in connection with Prof. Asa Gray, of the " Flora of North America," which appeared at intervals till 1843, when it was discontinued on account oi the vast amount of new material brought to light by exploration. From 1822 to 1858 he prepared the botanical reports, some of them in connection with Dr. Gray, of most of the United States exploring expeditions. Among his other publications are " Cyperacese of North America" (1836), and "Flora of the State of New York," in the series of reports of the natural history survey of the state (2 vols. 4to, 1843-'4). He was also the author of numer- ous botanical, chemical, and mineralogical pa- pers in the "Smithsonian Contributions" and other scientific publications. His herbarium
- he result of 40 years' collection, and his botan-
cal library, one of the most valuable in the country, were transferred to Columbia college some years before his death. TORREYA, a genus of evergreen coniferous trees, named by Arnott in honor of Dr. John Torrey, from specimens collected in Florida by the late Mr. Groom. It belongs to the yew tribe of conifers, in which the fruit does not form a proper cone, but becomes a sort of fleshy fruit or drupe. The Florida species, T. taxi- folia^ is confined to a rather limited locality near Aspalaga, on the Appalachicola river, in middle Florida; it is 20 to 40 ft. high, with a trunk 6 to 18 in. through, and has much the gen- Canadensis). There was formerly a consider- able forest of Torreyas, but all the trees not growing in inaccessible ravines have been used for lumber and steamboat fuel. The leaves, mostly in two rows, are about 1 m - l n gi thick, rigid, sharp-pointed, and rather light green ; the flowers are dioecious, the fertile ones bearing a drupe about the size and shape of a small olive, Torreya taxifolia. Leaves half the natural size; staminate and pistillate aments enlarged; fruit and a section re- duced. consisting of a hard nut surrounded by a thin pulp. The wood, which is very durable, gives off when sawed or burned a strong terebin- thinate and somewhat unpleasant odor, on which account it was called in Florida " stink- ing cedar." The tree has proved hardy in the latitude of New York. Not long after the discovery of the original species, Siebold and Zuccarini described T. nucifera, discovered in northern Japan, but cultivated in all parts of that country, where the oil obtained from its seeds is used for culinary purposes. Another species, discovered by Fortune in the moun- tains of northern China, and described as 7. qrandis, is a large fine tree, possibly not belong- ing to this genus. Among the wonderful sto- ries told about California in the early days of its present era was the discovery of the nut- meg tree growing wild in the mountains, and the tree was mentioned as myristica Calif orni-
