444 A CENTURY OF SCIENCE 



hands of Asa Gray continued to be one of the most 

 important factors in the advancement of American 

 botany. 



Asa Gray and the Journal, 



In 1834 there appears in the Journal (25, 346) a 

 "Sketch of the Mineralogy of a portion of Jefferson and 

 St. Lawrence Counties, New York, by J. B. Crawe of 

 Watertown and A. Gray of Utica, New York." This 

 appears to be the first mention in the Journal of the 

 name of Dr. Asa Gray, who, shortly after that date, 

 became thoroughly identified with its botanical interests. 

 In the early part of his career both before and imme- 

 diately after graduating in medicine, Gray gave much 

 attention to the different branches of natural history in 

 its wide sense. He not only studied but taught "chemis- 

 try, geology, mineralogy, and botany," the latter branch 

 being the one to which he devoted most of his attention. 

 Among his early guides in the pursuit of botany may be 

 mentioned Dr. Hadley, "who had learned some botany 

 from Dr. Ives of New Haven," and Dr. Lewis C. Beck of 

 Albany, author of Botany of the United States North of 

 Virginia. At that period he made the acquaintance 

 of Dr. John Torrey of New York, with whom he later 

 became associated in most important descriptive work. 

 During the years between his graduation in medicine and 

 1842, the year when he came to Harvard College, his 

 activities were diverse and intense; so that his prep- 

 aration for his distinguished career was very broad and 

 thorough. His first visit to Europe, in 1838, brought him 

 into personal relations with a large number of the botan- 

 ists of Great Britain and the Continent. This extensive 

 acquaintance, added to his broad training, enabled him 

 even from the outset to exert a profound influence upon 

 the progress of his favorite science. He made the 

 Journal tributary to this development. His name first 

 appears as associate editor in 1853, but there are articles 

 in the Journal from his pen which bear an earlier date. 

 The first of these early botanical papers is the following: 

 "A Translation of a memoir entitled 'Beitrage zur Lehre 

 von der Befruchtung der Pflanzen,' (contributions to the 

 doctrine of the impregnation of plants, by A. J. C. 



