"John Torrey, MD, LL.D. One of America's great botanists, co-founder and President of the N. Y. Academy of Sciences, Trustee of Columbia College, corporator of the National Academy of Sciences; major 19th century plant taxonomist of Federal Expedition Collections to the West, Northwest and South; botanical mentor of Asa Gray; protector, during the Civil War, of the now National Herbarium; creator of an extensive, personal herbarium of unique scientific importance in its present home, the New York Botanical Garden; father (circa 1867) of the now international Torrey Botanical Club; made New York City a national American botanical center. He was ever an honest, kind and good man." Taken from the bronze marker on his grave stone.

Also: Physician (1818 graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York), Professor (Chemistry, Mineralogy, Geology) at West Point 1824-1827; (Chemistry and Botany) at the University of the State of New York College of Physicians and Surgeons 1827-1854; (Chemistry) at the College of New Jersey (Princeton University) 1830-1854; and (Chemistry, Botany, Mineralogy) at the University of the City of New York (New York University) 1832. First Assayer of U.S. Mint in New York (appointed 1853). He introduced the "natural system" of botanical classification, an improvement over the "artificial system" of Linnaeus, to the United States.

"John Torrey, MD, LL.D. One of America's great botanists, co-founder and President of the N. Y. Academy of Sciences, Trustee of Columbia College, corporator of the National Academy of Sciences; major 19th century plant taxonomist of Federal Expedition Collections to the West, Northwest and South; botanical mentor of Asa Gray; protector, during the Civil War, of the now National Herbarium; creator of an extensive, personal herbarium of unique scientific importance in its present home, the New York Botanical Garden; father (circa 1867) of the now international Torrey Botanical Club; made New York City a national American botanical center. He was ever an honest, kind and good man." Taken from the bronze marker on his grave stone.

Also: Physician (1818 graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York), Professor (Chemistry, Mineralogy, Geology) at West Point 1824-1827; (Chemistry and Botany) at the University of the State of New York College of Physicians and Surgeons 1827-1854; (Chemistry) at the College of New Jersey (Princeton University) 1830-1854; and (Chemistry, Botany, Mineralogy) at the University of the City of New York (New York University) 1832. First Assayer of U.S. Mint in New York (appointed 1853). He introduced the "natural system" of botanical classification, an improvement over the "artificial system" of Linnaeus, to the United States.