JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. XV 



appreciation in whicb tliis Board holds its departed associate than in 

 any expectation that formal action can adequately express its sense of 

 the great loss that we personally feel, and that this Institution has 

 experienced, your committee submits the following resolutions: 



Whereas the members of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian 

 lustitution have been called upon to mourn the death of their distin- 

 guished colleague, the late Dr. Asa Gray, who has been actively inter- 

 ested in the welfare of the Institution from its beginning, and who held 

 for fifteen years the oftice of Regent, with great advantage to the In- 

 stitution : Therefore, be it 



Resolved, That with a high appreciation of Dr. Gray's most eminent 

 labors in the development of all scientific truth, and especially in the 

 advancement and i)opularization of the study of botany ; with a grate- 

 ful sense of the service he has rendered to the Smithsonian Institution, 

 and with revereuce for his pure life, we record otir admiration of the 

 Christian character in which the truths of science were all seen in the 

 same light that shone on a life of steadfast faith. 



Besolved, That we mourn not only the great investigator, the teacher 

 and the associate, whose single mind found outward expression in a 

 manner so well remembered in its simple and indefinable charm, but 

 that above all we grieve for the loss of a friend. 



Resolved, That this preamble and the resolutions be spread on the 

 minutes of the Board in respectful tribute to the memory of our vener- 

 ated colleague, and that a copy be transmitted to his family in token of 

 the share we take in their bereavement. 



The Secretary stated that having learned from the widow of Dr. Gray 

 that she needed about eighty copies of the second part of the " Flora 

 ofNorth America," by her husband, which had been published by the 

 Smithsonian Institution, to complete the sets in her jjossession and ren- 

 der them available, he had ventured in the name of the Regents to fur- 

 nish these desired volumes, and had taken the occasion to express their 

 continued interest in the result of the labors of their late colleague; 

 for which Mrs. Gray had asked him to express her very sincere thanks. 



The chairman announced the election by joint resolution of Congress, 

 approved by the President February 15, 1888, of Dr. Andrew B. White, 

 of the State of New York, as Regent for the term of six years, to fill 

 the vacancy occasioned by the death of Dr. Gray. 



The chair then announced as the next business in order, the election 

 of Chancellor. 



On motion of Mr. Cox, Chief- Justice Melville W. Fuller was unani- 

 mously elected Chancellor of the Institution. 



Mr. Fuller, in accepting the office, after thanking the members of the 

 Board for the compliment, expressed his desire to promote the objects 

 of the Institution, in whose welfare, he was well aware, the late chan- 

 cellor, Chief-Justice Waite, had such great niterest, and he earnestly 

 hoped that he should be able to discharge his duties with as much fidel- 

 ity and success. 



Dr. Welling, chairman of the Executive Committee, presented its 

 annual report for the year ending June 30, 1888 5 -which was read and 

 accepted. 



