ASA GRAY. 783 



ing not only the experts iu the science, but tlie poor and struggling 

 student as well. He shared with all, the treasures of his knowledge, 

 aiid not infrequently he added something from the modest competence 

 which his industry had amassed. The words of good cheer from his 

 lij)s were re-echoed in after years, and the life so honorable was not uu- 

 honored. If the nunjerous honorary degrees from learned societies at 

 home and abroad testify to the esteem in which he was held as a scien- 

 tific botanist, the warm congratulations of friends from all parts of the 

 country when the memorial vase was presented on his seventy-fifth 

 birthday show no less clearly how much he was beloved as a man. 

 And when, during dreary weeks, his anxious friends hoped against 

 hope, watching to catch the sound of the loved voice which would 

 speak but could not, all felt that the message AA'hich he sought to utter 

 must have been a benediction. But it was not needed. His life was a 

 benediction, and as his body was borne to its last resting place the 

 freshly- fallen snow was not more pure than his character, nor the 

 sparkling winter air more bright and clear than his intellect. 



