698 The Smithsonian Institution 



the direction of the Institution is to be found in I848, 1 where 

 mention is made of some drawings and engravings of a paper 

 on the botany of Oregon, for which a small advance had been 

 made, and in the same volume 2 it is said that a "report on 

 the forest trees of North America," by Professor Asa Gray, 

 is in progress. The paper on the botany of Oregon refers 

 apparently to the work on the plants of the Wilkes expedi- 

 tion, of which the part by Gray appeared in 1854 and that by 

 Torrey in 1873. The Report of 1849 again mentions the 

 "report on the forest trees of North America," and says that 

 " this work will be completed in three parts, in octavo, with 

 an atlas of quarto plates, the first part to be published next 

 spring." 3 Numerous delays in the work are mentioned in 

 the different Reports, and in that of 1856,* after referring to 

 the pressing demands on the author's time and the difficulty 

 of obtaining the necessary drawings from the artist, Isaac 

 Sprague, it is said that "the work will be ready for the press 

 during this year." Nothing more is heard of the projected 

 flora beyond the statement in 1864 that work was to be re- 

 sumed upon it by Professor Gray, until 1884, when its final 

 abandonment by Gray was announced, and it was reported 

 that, although a proposition which had previously been made 

 by Professor C. S. Sargent to take up and complete the work 

 had been accepted, its magnitude had proved too great for 

 the funds at the disposal of the Institution, and that it had 

 been arranged with Professor Sargent that he should refund 

 the cost of the drawings which had been made by C. E. 

 Faxon and receive them for publication with a private pub- 

 lisher. In 1891, the twenty-three beautifully colored plates 

 which had been drawn by Mr. Sprague between 1849 and 

 1859 were issued by the Institution without text; and thus 

 what was, as originally planned, to have been the first botan- 



1 " Smithsonian Report," 1848, page 16. 3 Ibidem, 1849, page 18. 



2 Ibidem, page 19. 4 Ibidem, 1856, page 32, 



