410 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Mr. President, — You have touchingly and truly said that this 

 was one of the scientific homes of him whom we commemorate. Here, 

 almost as distinctly as in the Herbarium which he founded, and which 

 was the principal seat of his ceaseless activities, we can feel his pres- 

 ence. Under the influence of that presence, those who knew the sim- 

 plicity and modesty of Asa Gray, as the members of this Academy were 

 permitted to know him, realize how completely out of place and taste 

 would be any formal eulogium. Therefore these tributes of affection 

 which are brought to-night do not partake of the nature of formal eu- 

 logies ; they are merely the presentation of certain phases of what has 

 been so often called a beautiful, fruitful, and well-rounded life. 



Not long since, it fell to my lot, as an officer of another scientific 

 organization, to present a sketch of some of the leading events in Dr. 

 Gray's career. During the preparation of the outlines, two things kept 

 pressing themselves constantly upon my attention : first, the singleness 

 of purpose with which Professor Gray devoted himself to the establish- 

 ment of an Herbarium for the elucidation of the North American Flora ; 

 secondly, the zeal with which he engaged in the consideration of every 

 question touching the educational interests of Botany. 



This evening you are to hear from one of his successors a biographi- 

 cal notice, in which these two features must be presented as parts of the 

 whole ; from another successor, to whom has been wisely intrusted the 

 care of the Herbarium and the completion of the monumental work, 

 you will learn of the devotedness and self-sacrifice by which Professor 

 Gray placed his collection among herbaria of the very first rank. 

 There would therefore appear to be occasion for a special, though very 

 brief, consideration of the second point, namely, some of the relations of 

 Professor Gray to botanical education. On this subject, the Correspond- 

 ing Secretary has invited me to speak. 



Concerning Dr. Gray as a college instructor, I am permitted to quote 

 a few words from a letter by a leading jurist. He says : — 



"I was in college when Dr. Gray was appointed to his professorship at 

 Harvard, and was, I think, the first, or one of the first, to whom he lectured. 

 I remember his lectures well, they were so full of knowledge and of enthusi- 

 asm, and so calculated to impress the young mind. I suppose he had 

 not lectured much of late years, and in his many other successes his 

 powers as a lecturer may have been overlooked by those who have written 

 of him." 



Even early in his connection with the College, Dr. Gray was accus- 

 tomed to open his library and herbarium to those who expressed any 

 inclination to carry their botanical studies farther than the very narrow 



