ASA GRAY. 325 



already mentioned and a short business trip of six weeks to Paris in 

 the summer of 1855. On the other journeys he was accompanied by 

 Mrs. Gray. When abroad, he always spent much of his time with the 

 English, botanists, among whom he counted many warm personal 

 friends ; and he looked forward with special pleasure to his visits at 

 Kew, where he was welcomed by the Director, Sir W. J. Hooker, and 

 by his son and successor, Sir J. D. Hooker, for forty years his intimate 

 friend, whose opinion in botanical matters he esteemed more highly 

 than that of any of his contemporaries. In his second journey, from 

 June, 1850, to August, 1851, he travelled through France, Germany, 

 and Holland, and spent two months with Bentham at his home in 

 Herefordshire, studying the plants of the Wilkes Expedition, upon 

 which he was then working. The fourth journey, from September, 

 1868, to November, 1869, was undertaken at a time when he was 

 much overworked, and he spent the winter in Egypt, that country 

 being almost the only spot where there was nothing to tempt him to 

 botanize, besides visiting Italy, France, Germany, and England. The 

 event of the journey of September, 1880, to November, 1881, was a 

 trip to Spain, a country where he obtained much relief from botany. 



His last journey, on which he started in 1887, was a triumphant 

 farewell, in which were heaped upon him the honors bestowed on few 

 naturalists. He visited friends in France, Austria, and Germany ; 

 stopped at Geneva to see De Candolle, his life-long friend, older by 

 four years than himself, and sorrowfully bade him what both must have 

 felt to be a last farewell ; then hurried back from the Continent to re- 

 ceive the Doctor's degree from the three great British Universities, and 

 to attend the meeting of the British Association at Manchester. Here 

 he saw many old friends, and met for the first time three of Germany's 

 most distinguished botanists, — Cohn, Pringsheim, and the lamented 

 De Bary, whose untimely death was to come but a few days before his 

 own. At Manchester he was brought into contact with a large num- 

 ber of young botanists, who were charmed with his genial manner, and 

 astonished at his well preserved vigor of body, as well as mind. He re- 

 turned to America in October, apparently in perfect health, and resumed 

 active labor on the " Flora " ; but while busied with the preparation of 

 the Vitacece for that work, he was suddenly stricken with paralysis, on 

 the morning of November 28, and lingered in a partially conscious con- 

 dition until the evening of January 80, when he passed calmly away. 



By the death of Asa Gray, this Academy has lost a member whose 

 activity and zeal were unceasing, and whose brilliant talents as a scien- 



