ASA GRAY 225 



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in reference to his duty as a critic, and explains how a man with 

 such evident kindly feeling and consideration for all could some- 

 times seem so harsh in criticism. 



"Once a very zealous collector, to whom science was under 

 many obligations, described and published a large number of 

 plants from imperfect material, with undue haste, and without 

 competent knowledge. Dr. Gray had to show that really there 

 were very few new species among them, and in so doing his criti- 

 cism was unusually severe. In writing to Dr. Gray I ventured to 

 remonstrate with him upon the severity he had used. The reply 

 was, 'In my heart I would have been more tender than you, but 

 I cannot afford to be. I am, from my present position before the 

 world, a critic, and I cannot shrink from the duty which such a 

 position imposes upon me. If you were in the position that I am, 

 with a short life and a long task before you, and just as you 

 thought the way was clear for progress some one should dump 

 cart-loads of rubbish in your path, and you had to take off your 

 coat, roll up your sleeves, and spend weeks in digging that rubbish 

 away before you could proceed, I should not suppose you would 

 be a model of amiability. ' " 



This critical care of his science appeared not only in his pub- 

 lished reviews, but also in the more numerous private letters to 

 authors. After any publication, it was the common thing for the 

 author to receive from Dr. Gray some characteristic comment, 

 very friendly but faithfully keen; and it always helped the next 

 performance. When the Botanical Gazette was established in 

 1875, the enterprise was encouraged and the name suggested by 

 Dr. Gray. But he followed up this responsibility faithfully, and 

 for some time after each issue the editor would receive a letter full 

 of commendations or caustic comments. It was quite charac- 

 teristic of the man that when the criticism had been unusually 

 savage and the editor was feeling that perhaps the journal had 

 better be abandoned, Dr. Gray would send a paper of his own 

 for publication. 



Gray's interest extended beyond the somewhat narrow limits of 

 his special work in systematic botany, and included the general 

 philosophical aspects of biology. One of his most brilliant papers 

 was a discussion of the Relation of the Japanese Flora to That of 



