146 THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 



Asa Gray, the distinguished botanist, died at Cambridge 

 on the 30th of January 1888. He was the son of Moses 

 and Roxana (Howard) Gray, born Nov. 18, 1810, at Sau- 

 quoit in the township of Paris, Oneida county, N. Y. The 

 father was of Scotcli-Irish, the mother of English descent. 

 After leaving the school and the academy, he became a 

 student in the Medical School at Fairfield and studied with 

 physicians in the vicinity, receiving his degree of M.D. 

 at the age of twenty-one. In 1833-4 he was an assistant 

 of Dr. John Torrey, the professor of chemistry in the 

 College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York city, 

 and was soon associated with him in the elaboration of the 

 flora of North America. He remained a few years in New 

 York, as an assistant in the Medical College and as Cura- 

 tor of the Lyceum of Natural History. His early studies 

 were in chemistry and mineralogy, and his first paper in 

 the American Journal of Science and Art, written in con- 

 nection with Dr. J. B. Crawe, was upon the mineralogy 

 of portions of Jefierson and St. Lawrence counties. From 

 this time, 1833, he was a regular contributor to the 

 journal, and was soon one of its editors. The first edition 

 of his text-book, "Elements of Botany," was printed in 

 1836. 



In 1842, he was appointed the first incumbent of the 

 professorship founded in Harvard University on a be- 

 quest of Dr. Joshua Fisher of Beverly, INIass. Dr. Gray 

 continued in the active duties of this professorship until 

 1872, when he retired from the work of instruction and the 

 care of the garden, that he might devote his time to his 

 great work, "The Flora of North America," begun in 1838 

 in connection with Dr. Torrey. He had given to the col- 

 lege his extensive herbarium and vahiable botanical li- 

 brary in the development of which he labored incessantly, 

 and had the satisfaction of seeing them placed in a fire- 



