OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 41") 



Mr. Bentham, than whom there could be no one more competent to 

 express a just opinion, said of him in 1866 : — 



"No botanists in America are more actively at work than Asa Gray, 

 whose well known accuracy of detail, connected with great correctness of 

 general views, a thorough knowledge of general botany in all its branches, 

 and a philosophical mind, has given him so high a rank among the votaries 

 of the science." 



And again in 1873 : — 



" Of all the modern contributions to the study of Composite none are* 

 more important for the accuracy of observation and the due appreciation 

 of characters and affinities than those of Asa Gray. His views may always 

 be implicitly followed without any danger of being led into error, although 

 sometimes a difference of opinion may exist upon such minor points as the 

 generic or subgeneric value to be given to a group." 



It was the study of the flora of North America to which he devoted 

 these abilities, — the critical mastery of its orders, genera, and species in 

 their relations to each other as forming one great flora, and as related 

 more or less closely to the floras of other regions and other times. 

 Everything that was done by him had a more or less direct reference 

 to this main object, or was subordinate to it, whether it was giving 

 instruction to his classes, preparing text-books and manuals, or writ- 

 ing articles and notices for the journals. It may even be said that it 

 was only incidentally that he became a participant in the discussions 

 on Darwinism, for which his previous study of species had eminently 

 fitted him. 



His early botanical work was done under difficulties. The prime 

 requisites to the work of any systematic botanist are an herbarium and 

 a library. Of these there were then none worthy the name in America. 

 The best to be found were those belonging to the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences at Philadelphia, and what Dr. Torrey had gathered about him 

 in New York, and it was here that Dr. Gray made all his early re- 

 searches. But type specimens of species for comparison were almost 

 wholly wanting, as none of the collections which contained them were 

 in this country. The collections of Clayton, Kalm, and Cat. shy; of 

 Walter, Bartram, and Michaux ; of Bradbury and Pursh, and even of 

 our own Government explorers, Lewis and Clark ; of Menziea ai '1 

 Douglas, and of all the arctic explorers, — upon which collections a 

 very large part of the species then known had been founded, — were 

 scattered through different European herbaria. Many of these were 

 consulted by Dr. Gray on his first visit to Europe, and this fact 



