C.S. Rafinesque and John Torrey correspondence, 1819-1840
1819
C.S. Rafinesque and John Torrey correspondence, 1819-1840
Rafinesque, C. S. (Constantine Samuel), 1783-1840
1819
1 (48 Correspondence from C.S. Rafinesque to John Torrey, dated 1819-1840, comprised of 47 letters and one undated plant list. Rafinesque's unruly genius is on full display in his letters, as is his abundant ego and biting wit. Each missive is stuffed with news of numerous projects-- books, floras, articles, the founding of cultural institutions and scientific journals-- and the countless "N. Sp." (new species) he has determined. He announces that he has begun making his own engravings; later, "I am busy as a Bee, am printing now 2 works as Editor for strangers, one on Astronomy, another on Safe Banking..." Rafinesque offers Torrey support ("I am glad to hear that your little flora is finished..." he writes in 1819) with a good deal of tart criticism. He frequently returns to two particular grievances: Torrey's failure to adopt Rafinesque's new genera and species ("Why have you adopted G. Clintonia of Lindley 1820, and not my Clintonia of 1817!"); and his adherence to what Rafineque dubs "the putting off school"-- taxonomical "lumpers." "Do you wait to see [my descriptions] quoted elsewhere or do you deem 10 years needful to ripen facts?," he writes in 1838. "Why then quote unripe facts of somebody else-- Let us smile & be friends nevertheless... Yr. flora is a work of great merit, but with great defects also..." Torrey is not the only recipient of Rafinesque's ire. The latter's letters contain frequent complaints of mistreatment by others ("Prof. Silliman has behaved as a Sillyman with me...These Yankees are very ticklish"-- "Since Arnott has served me so shabbily I have doubled the price of the plants I had prepared for him...") and even more frequent disdain for their work. "I am now studying Hooker's flora 1st Vol.," he writes in 1836. "What a fine work! Yet how full of blunders!" Obsolete and unresolved plant names mentioned include Acnida, Ammyrsine, Aectyson, Arenaria canadensis, Asclepias maritima, Atriplex dioica, Atriplex mucronata, Atriplex purshiana, Ce
