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LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



for Gray the beginnings of an herbarium, the best record of his 

 discoveries. In those days the naming of ordinary plants was by 

 no means so simple a thing as Gray afterwards made it for the 

 botanical fraternity through his admirable Manual. Descriptions 

 were often meager and indefinite and scattered; and the frequent 

 uncertainties of determination would have discouraged any but 

 the most ardent. Hence in Gray's herbarium there began to 

 accumulate his perplexities plants that he could not identify. 



Up to this time botany for him seems to have been only a fasci- 

 nating recreation, his serious purpose still being the medical pro- 

 fession; but his undetermined plants brought him into his vital 

 botanical connection, and so determined his career. In 1830, a 

 year before he received his medical degree, he went to New York 

 City to buy medical books for his instructor, Dr. Trowbridge. A 

 package of undetermined plants was taken along, for he hoped to 

 get the assistance of Dr. John Torrey, at that time the best known 

 American botanist. He failed to find him, but left the plants. 

 Presently there came a letter from Torrey, inclosing the names of 

 his plants, and doubtless also containing kindly expressions of 

 encouragement. In any event, this letter began their life-long 

 acquaintance and intimate association, until Dr. Torrey's death 

 in 1873. 



Then came the struggle for a botanical^ o^ortunity, a struggle 

 that continued for seven or eight years. There was abundant 

 opportunity for botanical work, but in those days there were no 

 botanical positions. Botany was cultivated chiefly by practicing 

 physicians, clergymen, or those who had an income sufficient to 

 permit it. It was distinctly not recognized as a means of livelihood. 

 Gray did not want to practice medicine; he did want to devote 

 himself to botany; and he had no income. For six years he seems 

 to have lived "from hand to mouth," teaching during the winters, 

 chiefly in Utica, and using the money thus earned in making 

 collecting tours during the summers. One summer he spent in 

 Western New York; and another in the "pine-barrens" of New 

 Jersey, where he was sent by Dr. Torrey. Those who knew him 

 later, when his great reputation had become established, can well 



