j jo BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



of the work, and a false notion that it might be done faster. If 

 airy one should try such work, the only wonder would be that it 

 could be done so rapidly. The appeal for help which Dr. Gray 

 makes, as well as the protest against needless requests for informa- 

 tion,deserve to be broadcast. The portion of the paper referring to 

 Dr. Gray's connection with our flora is as follows: 



I cannot say how early it was that my revered master, Dr. 

 Torrey, conceived the idea of the Flora which he at length under- 

 took. But he once told me that he had invited Nuttall to join 

 him in the production of such a work, and that Nuttall declined. 

 This must have been as early as the year 1832, that is. half a cen- 

 tury ago. My correspondence with Dr. Torrey began in the sum- 

 mer of 1830, when I was a young medical student, and three or four 

 years afterward I joined him at New York and became, for a short 

 time, his assistant, for all the rest of his life his botanical col- 

 league. He was very much occupied with his duties as professor, 

 chiefly of chemistry; he had not yet abandoned the idea of complet- 

 ing his Flora of the Northern and Middle States, the first volume 

 of which was finished in 1824, while yet free from all professional 

 cares. Although working in the direction of the larger undertak- 

 ing, the Flora of North America did not assume definite shape be- 

 fore the year 1835. I believe that some of the first actually-pre- 

 pared manuscript for it was written by myself in that or the 

 following year. I was then and for a long time expecting to ac- 

 company the South Pacific Exploring Expedition, as originally 

 organized under the command of Commodore Ap. Catesby Jones, 

 but which was subject to long delay and many vicissitudes; during 

 which, having plentiful leisure, I tried my prentice hand upon 

 some of the earlier natural orders. Before the expedition, as mod- 

 ified, was ready to sail, under the command of Capt. Wilkes, I had 

 accepted Dr. Torrey 's proposal that I should be his associate in the 

 work upon which I had made a small beginning as a volunteer. 

 Two parts, or half of the first volume (360 pages), of this Flora, 

 were printed and issued in July and October, 1838. 



It was thought at first, in all simplicity, that the whole task 

 could be done at something like this rate. But, apart from other 

 considerations, it soon* became clear that there had been no proper 

 identification of the foundation-species of the earlier botanists, 

 from Linnaeus downward; and that our Flora could not, go on sat- 

 isfactorily without this. Dr. Torrey had, indeed, some years be- 

 fore, made a hasty visit to Hooker at Glasgow, to London, and to 

 Paris; but the taking of a few notes upon some particular plants in 

 the herbaria of Hooker, Lambert, andMichaux, and the acquisition, 

 from Hooker, of a good set of the Arctic plants of the British ex- 

 plorers, was about all that had been done. I proposed to attempt 

 something more; so, taking advantage of a favorable opportunit}', 

 T sailed for Liverpool in November, 1838, and devoted a good part 



