Charles Christopher Parry

Charles Parry was a British-American surgeon and botanist who served in the 1848-1852 U.S./Mexican Border Survey, led by William H. Emory (replacing that organized under Graham and Bartlett) and supported by a team of naturalists including Parry, as well as John Bigelow, Arthur Schott, and Charles Wright. Collections and descriptions by Parry and the group helped to document Rio Grande border flora, and to develop thinking about arid and semi-arid landscapes in the Southwestern United States. Parry’s contributions can be seen in the botanical portion of Emory’s Report on the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey (1857-59). In addition to his plant studies, Parry is remembered as an early conservation voice, for instance when he called for protection of the rare Torrey pine in California.