194 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



All the various collections made by the expedition of Commodore 

 Charles Wilkes, during the years 1838-1842, save those collected upon 

 our own Pacific coast, were placed in Dr. Gray's hands for elabora- 

 tion. The collection comprised plants from widely-separated, insular, 

 and continental floras, and the work was one which a less able bot- 

 anist would have hesitated to undertake. How well the task was per- 

 formed, two elegant volumes, which are better known in Europe than 

 they are with us, stand as abundant evidence. 



In this brief r'esum'e of his labors, in systematic botany, we can but 

 merely allude to a host of opuscula, or minor contributions minor only 

 in reference to their size, but of the highest value in their relations to 

 science. These exist in the form of contributions to scientific journals, 

 and to the proceedings of societies or academies. Some are devoted 

 to the clearing up a knotty point in physiology or in classification ; 

 some contain the revision of a whole family or genus ; while others 

 are devoted to the working up of smaller collections than those com- 

 prised in the memoirs already referred to. Nor must we overlook the 

 contributions which for years have appeared in almost every number of 

 the American Journal of Science and Arts, of which Dr. Gray has long 

 been one of the editors. In these notes the American reader has been 

 kej)t au courant with all the best work of European botanists. 



Such is an imperfect enumeration of our first botanist's contribu- 

 tions to the science ; but there remains a greater than these to men- 

 tion his elementary works. However we value his labors in the 

 higher departments of science, we render him our gratitude when we 

 look upon what he has done to open a welcome door, through which 

 not only the student, but the reader of average intelligence, and even 

 the child, can enter the heretofore exclusive domain of Botany. Those 

 who now take up the study of botany can have little idea of the diffi- 

 culties that beset us of a generation or so ago. Where we groped and 

 guessed, doubtful whether we were on the right path or the wrong one, 

 the way is now made clear. The old rubbish is brushed aside, and the 

 student now can walk in pleasant paths, guided by the clearest light 

 of modern science. It is his untiring efforts to popularize science (in 

 the true sense of the word) that has given Dr. Gray a lasting claim 

 upon all who are interested in education and culture. As early as 

 1836, he published the " Elements of Botany," which grew into the 

 "Structural and Systematic Botany," or " Botanical Text-Book," of the 

 present day, a work that, through its various editions, has kept pace 

 with discovery, and at each issue has stood as the best exponent of the 

 state of vegetable physiology in any language. 



In 1848 appeared the "Manual of the Botany of the Northern 

 United States," in which our Flora was presented in a compact vol- 

 ume, with concise descriptions. This admirable work has passed 

 through several editions, each one an improvement upon its predeces- 

 sor, and it now stands unequalled as a local Flora. 



