61 





there, he issued the first century of his North American GraminecD 

 and Cyperacecc. A second century was issued shortly after, but 

 the work was never completed. He stayed with Dr. Torrey till 

 the spring of 1834, and then returned to Mr. Bartlett's school, 

 intending to resume his work at the college after the summer 

 vacation. The financial condition of the college, however, pre- 

 vented this, much to his disappointment, but, shortly after, in 

 1836, through Dr. Torrey^s kindness, he received the appointment 

 of Curator of the New York Lyceum of Natural History. His 

 first botanical papers were read before the Lyceum, In Dtcembcr, 

 1834, and were entitled A Monograph of the North American 

 Rhyncosporce and ^ Notice of Some New, Rare, or Otherwise 

 Interesting Plants from the Norther7i and Western Portions of 

 the State of New York. In 1836 he published his first text-book, 

 Elements of Botany^ a work conspicuous for its clear and sound 

 reasoning and original thought. It treats of the principles of 



morphology, histology and vegetable physiology, and prepared 

 the way for the Botanical Text- Book. 



In 1835 o^ ^^Z^ Dr. Gray was appointed botanist of the 

 exploring expedition to the South Pacific, under Capt. Wilkes. 

 During the long delays which attended the setting out of the 

 expedition, preliminary work on the North American Flora, which 

 had been many years before planned by Dr. Torrey, was begun. 

 When the Wilkes expedition finally started, Dr. Gray resigned 

 his position as botanist, and became Dr. Torrey's assistant in the 

 new Flora. The work was arranged according to the Natural 

 System, and in its scope was to be far ahead of anything that had 

 hitherto appeared. 



In 1838, Dr. Gray received the appointment of Professor of 

 Botany in the University of Michigan, though he never filled the 

 ehair. He continued to work with Dr. Torrey in New York and, 

 in July and October, 1838. Vol. I, Pts, i and 2 of the Flora of 

 North America were published. In November of this year he 

 sailed for Europe, to consult the various herbaria, which contained 

 large collections of American plants made by foreign collectors. 

 He visited England, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland, 

 ^taly and Austria, and met all the eminent botanists of the day, 

 forming life-long friendships with some of them. His acquaint- 



