Torrey Botanical Society

Torrey Botanical Society (formerly Torrey Botanical Club) was started in the 1860s by colleagues of John Torrey. It is the oldest botanical society in the Americas. The Society promotes the exploration and study of plant life, with particular focus on the flora of the regions surrounding New York City. Members of the group including Nathaniel Lord Britton and his wife Elizabeth Gertrude Britton founded the New York Botanical Garden.

The Torrey Botanical Society is an organization for people interested in plant life, including professional and amateur botanists, students, and others who simply enjoy nature. The society, which began informally in the 1860s under the aegis and inspiration of Columbia College Professor John Torrey, is thought to be the oldest botanical society in America. The early members were amateur botanists, students, and colleagues of Dr. Torrey, who were interested in collecting and identifying plants and occasionally met in the evening to discuss their findings. The organization was named with the appearance of its first publication, Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, in 1870, and was incorporated in 1871. The Society has published a scientific journal since that time, and currently publishes the Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society quarterly.

Today, the objectives of the Society are “to promote interest in botany, and to collect and disseminate information on all phases of plant science.” These objectives are fulfilled through public lectures, field trips, fellowships and awards that support scholarship and research, and publications. Through outreach and publications, the society has become an international organization and is affiliated with the American Institute of Biological Sciences.

The Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society (until 1997 The Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club), the oldest botanical journal in the Americas, has as its primary goal the dissemination of scientific knowledge about plants (in the broad sense of both plants and fungi). It publishes basic research in all areas of plant biology, except horticulture, with emphasis on research done in, and about plants of, the Western Hemisphere. The Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society is published in two parts. The first part usually consists of original research papers of five printed pages or more (2.5 double-spaced typed pages equals ca. one printed page). The second part, TORREYA (once a separate journal), usually consists of general, invited, and review papers, original research papers of less than five printed pages, and papers on distribution, floristics, conservation, and environmental concerns, field trips reports, obituaries, book reviews, and other kinds of articles when availability of space in this section allows for quicker publication than would otherwise occur.

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