OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 413 



Botany, — collections which he had done everything to divert into the 

 channels marked out by himself. He was particularly attracted to the 

 important adjunct for instruction and research, and for popular education, 

 the Arnold Arboretum. He devised plan after plan to bring back into 

 the course of medical study its traditions of Botany, and he was never 

 wholly reconciled to give this science up to the schools of Pharmacy. 

 He urged his colleagues to overcome their prejudice against having at 

 least one large general elective in Botany, which might serve as a pos- 

 sible attraction to those intending to study the profession of medicine, 

 and he was fond of noting the success attending a smaller elective termed 

 Biology, specially designed for them. Believing that the study of 

 Botany might be made of great use as a discipline in a far different 

 field, he suggested establishing at the Bussey Institution an exceedingly 

 general elective, open to college students, under the title of " Rural 

 Affairs." This elective, comprising a modicum of Botany, was to be 

 arranged for the increasing number of those on whom sooner or later 

 might devolve the care of estates. In short, every phase of botanical 

 study was carefully examined by him with reference to the needs of his 

 University, and of sound learning in general. 



His visits to St. Louis, to consult with the venerable founder of the 

 Shaw School of Botany in regard to the establishment, attest the fact 

 that his interests in education were not local in their character. The 

 wisdom with which that great enterprise was planned shows how far- 

 reaching was his good judgment. It may with truth be said, that the 

 Shaw School of Botany is at once a memorial of Henry Shaw, 

 and of his friends George Engelmann and Asa Gray. It may well 

 be numbered among Professor Gray's most enduring distinctions, that 

 he assisted in shaping the future of two working schools of Botany. 



Besides his educational works, his critical reviews have exerted a 

 profound influence on the direction and scope of botanical education in 

 this country. These reviews were judicial and impartial, — discriminat- 

 ing rather than laudatory. His censure was given in a kindly spirit, 

 frequently with a light touch of humor, which was never suggestive of 

 cynicism. He could find faults, but not as a fault-finder; bis aim 

 was always to secure improvement. When, as in one memorable 

 instance, the errors pointed out by him were perpetuated in a second 

 edition, he could bring to bear a severity of criticism which v. 

 promptly remedial. His command over written speech, by which 

 sometimes words long unused by others were brought out of tlie 

 armory for a single thrust, make many of his reviews instructive 

 studies iu style. 



