222 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



critic was merciless. I mentally resolved each time that I would 

 not re-write it; but I did re- write it; and was obliged to continue 

 doing so until he thought it might be allowed to pass. It was the 

 most helpful lesson I ever received in the art of staling things." 



Gray insisted upon developing initiative in the student. Perhaps 

 wCr^insysiemat^T&oiany lends itself more kindly to a slavish 

 following than almost any other. It is so much easier to copy 

 descriptions than to make them afresh, especially when they seem 

 clear and appropriate. This slavish following Dr. Gray could not 

 endure, and when the writer submitted him some pages of a con- 

 templated manual, he was informed that he was to act as an inves- 

 tigator rather than a recording machine. To see the plant vividly, 

 to seize the essential features, and then to describe them aptly 

 was to him as much a matter of individual style as the production 

 of a literary composition. 



Gray's work as a teacher through his Manual touched his 

 greatest audience. The first edition appeared in 1848, and seven 

 editions were published. Probably no manual of botany was ever 

 so widely used for so long a time, and it well deserved its success. 

 It was a model of clear arrangement and masterly description. 

 It was simple enough for use by the beginner; its keys were easily 

 understood; and its descriptions were marvels of brevity and com- 

 pleteness. Long drawn out descriptions are confusing and to the 

 beginner they are baffling and often misleading; but the Manual 

 selects the essential features of each species and makes it stand out 

 sharply. It easily supplanted all preceding manuals, and for half 

 a century it has been the constant companion of every botanist 

 within its range. This made Gray's name a household word 

 wherever botany was either studied or only cultivated as a pas- 

 time, and helped in no small way to establish his singularly preemi- 

 nent reputation in this country. 



Not only through his more technical scientific work, but more 

 largely through his Manual, he developed an enormous corre- 

 spondence. Collectors everywhere sent him plants for determina- 

 tion or confirmation, and he never turned them aside. It was 

 always a mystery how he found time to write so fully to so many 



