The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Vasey, George

VASEY, vā'sĭ, George, American botanist: b. near Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, 28 Feb. 1822; d. Washington, D. C., 4 March 1893. He was brought to this country in infancy by his parents, studied medicine at the Berkshire Medical Institute, Pittsfield, Mass, and practised his profession in Elgin and Ringwood, Ill., 1848-66. He was the botanist of the Powell Colorado Exposition in 1868 and of the Department of Agriculture at Washingtom from 1873 till his death. He gave his attention in his latest years almost entirely to the study of grasses, to which his publications chiefly relate. Among them are ‘A Catalogue of the Forest Trees of the United States’ (1876); ‘Agricultural Grasses of the United States’ (1884); ‘Grasses of the Southwest’ (1890-91); ‘Grasses of the Pacific Slope’ (1892-93).