748 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS. 



In February or March of 1835 he gave his last instruction at the 

 Utica High School. He expected to continue as Dr. Torrey's assistant 

 the following season ; but " the prospects of the Medical School were 

 so poor that Dr. Torrey could not afiord to employ him." He never- 

 theless returned to New York in the autumn, took the position of curator 

 and librarian of the Lyceum of Natural History, and continued his 

 botanical investigations. During the summer he had begun the prep- 

 eration of his " Elements of Botany," and in the course of 1836 the 

 work appeared. It showed the scholar in its science and in its style. 

 The subjects of vegetable structure, physiology, and classifteation were 

 presented in a masterly manner, though within a small compass. The 

 book moreover showed his customary independence of judgment and 

 clear head in various criticisms and suggestions, — later investigations 

 sustaining them, much to his gratification. 



The Wilkes Exploring Expedition came near making a profound im- 

 pression on Gray's life. In the summer of 1836 the position of botanist 

 in the expedition was offered him and accepted. But delays occurred 

 in the time of sailing, and changes were threatened that threw uncer- 

 tainties over the cruise, and for these reasons, and on account of the 

 work on the North American Flora, of which, by invitation of Dr. 

 Torrey, he was to be joint author, his resignation was sent in the fol- 

 lowing year. The expedition changed its commander from Commodore 

 Patterson, over a ship-of-the-line, to Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, with a 

 squadron of two sloops-of-war (better adapted for the purpose), besides 

 other vessels, six in all, and sailed in August, 1838. The four years 

 abroad would have given him an opportunity for observations and dis- 

 coveries that would have rejoiced him — excursions in Madeira, the 

 Canaries, to the Organ Mountains in Brazil, a brief look about Orange 

 Bay near Cape Horn, excursions to the Andes of Chili and about lower 

 Peru, over Oregon and Washington Territory, and parts of California, 

 through numerous island groups of the South and North Pacific, in , 

 Australia and New Zealand, about Luzon in the Philippines, at Singa- 

 pore, at Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena — and his open mind^would 

 have gathered in facts on the relations and geographical distribution 

 of species that would have been to him a mine of wealth as science ad- 

 vanced under Darwin's lead. The place of botanist in the expedition 

 was well occupied by the most excellent, indefatigable, and many-sided 

 zoologist Dr.Charles Pickering, and by Mr. William D. Breckenridge, a 

 Scotch gardener and zealous collector, and Mr. William Rich ; but with 

 Dr. Gray, devoted to the one subject, great results would have been J 

 accomplished. North American botany however would no doubt have * 

 suffered. 



By October of 1838, a couple of months after the sailing of the Explor- 

 ing Expedition, two parts of the projected " Flora " were already out. 

 But so many doubtful points had been brought to light, that a study of 

 foreign herbaria had become imperative. Dr. Gray had accepted, dur- 



