776 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS. 



Orieutiilis Tllnstnita" (18l8-'49), in which he iiiteiuled to figure and 

 describe all the genera of the Eastern States, with the aid of the artist, 

 Mr. Isaac Sprague. Of this work onl^- two of the proposed volumes 

 were ever published, owing to the expense entailed. Other important 

 l)apers were "Planttie Wrightiana? Texano-Neo-Mexicanai," in the Smith- 

 sonian contributions of 1852 and 1853; "Plantse Liudheimeriauje," 

 written in connection with Dr. Engelmann ; "Reports on the Botany of 

 the 32d, 38tli, 39th, and 41st Parallel Expeditions," in connection with 

 Dr. Torrey 5 Gamopetake in Watson's Flora of California, etc. An ex- 

 amination of the complete list of his works, which will soon be printed 

 in the American Journal of Science, would alone convey an adequate 

 idea of his extraordinary fertility as a writer and the wide range of his 

 investigations. 



After this long preparation of thirt^^-flve years, the first part of the 

 " Synoptical Elora," including the Gamopetake after GomposiUe, ap- 

 peared, in 1878. It formed the first part of the second volume ; for, on 

 the revised plan, the first volume was to include the Polypetake and 

 Gamopetakv through Gompositw, and the second volume the remaining 

 Exogens and the Endogens. A second part, including from Gaprifoli- 

 aceo) through Gomposita', appeared in 1881, and in 1880 supplements to 

 both parts were issued, and the whole bound in one volume. He was at 

 work on the PolypetaJm, and had nearly finished the Vitacece, when 

 attacked by his last illness, and the unfinished volumes must now be 

 completed by him who was his associate for many years, and, after Dr. 

 Gray himself, the best fitted for the work. 



Gray's critical knowledge of the Flora of North America not only 

 placed him at the head of all American botanists, but also gave him a 

 high reputation abroad. In his knowledge of the difficult order Gom- 

 positce^ the largest of all the orders of flowering plants, and the one in 

 which he always felt the most interest, he probably surpassed any liv- 

 ing botanist. He was at one time urged by Bentham and Hooker to 

 treat that order in their classic " Genera Plantarum," but, as the work 

 involved a residence at Kew for a considerable time, he was obliged to 

 decline the ofter. 



It was however more especially through his observations on the 

 geographical distribution of plants made incidentally during the prog- 

 ress of his work on our own flora, that he was recognized as a natu- 

 ralist of the highest type by the scientific circles of Europe. When 

 we consider the marked capacity for studies of this nature which he 

 afterwards exhibited, remembering the brilliant contributions to Plant 

 Geography which resulted from the explorations of Robert Brown, 

 Darwin, and Hooker, we can only regret that Gray did not sail as 

 botanist of the Wilkes Expedition. The collectors of the expedition. 

 Dr. Charles Pickering, W. D. Brackenridge, and William Rich, brought 

 back many interesting plants, of which the Phieuogams, excepting those 

 from the Pacific coast of America sent to Dr. Torrey, were placed in 



