THE INCORPORATORS 14! 
student at Fairfield Medical School and received a doctor’s 
degree in 1831, but never practiced. While a student, Dr. Gray 
assembled quite an extensive herbarium, and many mineralogical 
specimens, and began a correspondence with Dr. Lewis C. Beck 
of Albany and Dr. John Torrey of New York. After teaching 
at Bartlett’s High School, giving a course of lectures on botany 
at the Fairfield Medical School and on botany and miner- 
alogy at Hamilton College, Dr. Gray was called to New York 
as assistant to Professor Torrey. From this time, his attention 
was chiefly given to botany, and some original papers were soon 
published. In 1835 Gray became Curator and Librarian of the 
Lyceum of Natural History in New York, and issued in 1836 
his first text-book, the “ Elements of Botany.” The Wilkes 
Exploring Expedition, to which he had been appointed botanist, 
failing to sail until two years later than the time originally set, 
he accepted the chair of botany at the newly-founded University 
of Michigan, with the condition that he be permitted to spend 
a year in Europe. The University proved unable, however, to 
meet its engagements and Dr. Gray returned to New York and 
continued work on the “ Flora of North America,” which he had 
begun in 1836, in collaboration with Professor Torrey. The 
first volume of this important treatise appeared in 1838, and 
the second in 1843. 
Attracting the favorable notice of President Quincy of Har- 
vard, the newly-endowed Fisher Professorship of Natural His- 
tory was soon offered him. Dr. Gray entered on his duties there 
in 1842. 
Having married, he established himself in Cambridge and 
surrounded himself with books and plants. His home soon 
became a center for the study of botany by students both old and 
young. Out of his small salary, Gray contrived to find means 
to carry on his investigations in botany and to accumulate speci- 
mens, so that in 1865, when he presented his collections to the 
Harvard College, the herbarium contained more than 200,000 
specimens and the library about 2,200 books. 
It 
