25 



History of Botanical Exploration in Hawaii 



By Prof. Vaughan MacCaughey, College of Hawaii. 

 (Continued.) 

 Life of Asa Gray. 



Born at Paris, New York, Nov. 18, 1810; he died at Cam- 

 bridge, Mass., Jan. 30, 1888. He was the son of a farmen and 

 was educated at Fairfield, (N. Y.) academy, and Fairfield Medi- 

 cal School. His botanical collecting and studies began in 1827. 

 In 1831 he received the degree of M. D. In 1834 Gray was ap- 

 pointed botanist to the U. S. Exploring Expedition ; he tired of 

 the long delay in starting, and resigned in 1837. Gray's first 

 textbook, the famous ''Elements of Botany," was published in 

 1836, and won speedy recognition. In 1842 he was appointed to 

 the Fisher Chair of Natural History in Harvard University, and 

 he spent the remainder of his life at work there. He developed 

 the now-renowned herbarium, library, and botanical gardens. 

 Gray's most important work, the "Manual of the Botany of the 

 Northern United States," was published in 1847. He retired 

 from active service in 1873, and devoted his remaining years to 

 research. 



Brackenridge, the botanist of the Exploring Expedition, pub- 

 lished his descriptions of the ferns collected during the voyage, 

 as a separate volume. Unfortunately, the entire edition? with the 

 exception of about a dozen copies, was destroyed by fire. A 

 nearly complete set of his specimens is in the United States Na- 

 tional Herbarium ; the collection is also well-represented at the 

 New York Botanical Garden. 



The Rev. J. Diell, seaman's chaplain at Honolulu, aided Brack- 

 enridge materially in his collecting, and also did much inde- 

 pendent collecting and research. 



22. Visit of the "'Galathea'^ and Didrichsen. 



1845-47. 



On the "Galathea" Expedition which was sent out from Den- 

 mark Didrichsen was the botanist. The voyage occupied the 

 years 1845-1847, and a visit was made to' the Hawaiian Archi- 

 pelago. The larger portion of DIdrichsen's collections are now 

 in Copenhagen, although exchanges occur in other European 

 herbaria. 



23. The Voyage of the "Herald"; Seemann. 



A British expedition sailed in the ''Herald/' and from 1847 

 to 1851 cruised the world, visiting the West Indies, Central and 



