684 



GRASSWORT 



GRASSWORT. Seo C, 



GRATiOLA 



healing qualiti 



yello 



Kii.ly places fi i (JmIh,' t,, l-,:i,,:iiia bears 



.. half an inch Ions, trom .luiie to September. 

 U. aurea, Mahl.,was once offered by collectors. It is a 

 glandular plant, with Ivs. lanceolate, entire or remotely 

 denticulate, and 2 sterile filaments. B.B. 3:162. 



GRAVfiSIA (after C. L. Graves, who collected in 

 Madagascar). Melastomdcece. Three species of dwarf 

 warmhouse foliage plains, natives uf Madagascar, and 



^-- 



985 Asa Graj at 76 years. 



cult in a few American conservatories For culture ar 

 for distmctions fiom nllie I genera see iJ f lot u: 

 der which name most of the varieties are still known 



under mom 



fill 1 \ \ B g It 



tat V.I tl 1 e 1 I tl f 1 II defined 



double longitul nal rows of roundish pink dots F S 

 16 16% IS iiobably acopy of B M 55'4 (See also Gt 

 1865, p. 385. and B.H. 1865, p. 225.) Var. sup6rba,Hort., 

 I.H.26:359 (1879) is shown, with more and larger red- 

 dish purple spots, which are less regularly arranged. 

 Var. Legrelle&na (B. LegrelUihin, Van Houtte). An 

 alleged hybrid obtained by Van Houtte and figured in 

 F. 8.23:2407. Coigneux refers this plate to Grnrrsia 

 guttata, but no fls. are shown, nor have the Ivs. anv 

 spots. The nerves are outlined in white, and som.- of 

 the cross veins for short distances. Var. Alfred Bleu 

 is brilliantly spotted and lined with bright red. tlii> 

 nerves boldly outlined, the cross veins interruptedly 

 outlined. I.H. 41 :13 (1894). Var. margariUcea, Nichol- 

 son (B. mar<,arit:}cen. Hort. W. BuU^Soneriln mar- 

 garitacea. F.S. 16:1697). See DC. Mon. Phan.7: 537. 



GRAY 



GRAY, ASA (Fig. 985), botanist and naturalist, was 

 born ill I'ans, Oneida county, N. Y.,Nov. Is, 1810, and 

 died in Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 30, 1888. His father 

 was a tanner. He studied medicine, but never prac- 

 ticed it. He early became interested in botany, and 

 entered into correspondence with Dr. Lewis C. Beck 

 and Dr. John Torrey, both of whom were well known 

 botanists of the time. In 1833, Gray became assistant 

 to Torrey, who held the chair of chemistry and botany 

 in the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons. 

 From this connection dates his serious botanical work. 

 His first book, the "Elements of Botany," appeared in 

 1836. To the schools, however, he became best known 

 through his "Lessons, "which first appeared in 1857. To 

 the last revision of this book, in 1887, he gave the name 

 "Elements of Botany," thus reviving the title of his 

 maiden effort. The" Botanical Text Book "first appeared 

 in 1842 : it went to a sixth edition in 1879. From the 

 first this work was accepted as the highest authority 

 on the subjects which it treated; and it is to-day the 

 model for the formal presentation of morphology and 

 taxonomy. Gray is further known as an author of text- 

 books in the admirable books for youth, "How Plants 

 Grow," 1858, and "How Plants Behave," 1872. Gray's 

 texts at once became standards, and have done more to 

 make botany teachable in the schools than any other 

 American works. They are expressions of the older or 

 topical method of presenting plant subjects, as con- 

 trasted with the newer ideals which first iiitro- 

 ^ duce the pupil to biological or life problems. They 

 C will always be known as having marked an epoch 

 in the teaching of botany in America. 



Gray was chiefly known for his taxonomic and 

 desciiptne work with plants. It fell to his hand 

 to review the North American flora. The western 

 cjuntiy was largely unknown botanically. The 

 lie t ons of government surveys and of individ- 

 I I \ 1 t to him for study. His publications on 

 11 ltd 1 a aie voluminous and critical. Healso 

 1 tl e floias of many of the Pacific islands 

 I I n His most ambitious work was the 

 1 Floiaof North America." This great 

 to aj pear in 1838, at which time he was 

 thor with Torrey. After having passed 

 u t \ lumes comprising the orders from Ra- 

 uncuIaceTa through Compositae, the work was dis- 

 T tinned until in 1878, he published the Gamo- 

 I nla> after Corapositffi. In 1884, he published the 

 t iiilies from C aprif oliacese through Compositse. 

 The necessitj of studying the wealth of new mate- 

 rial lesulting from the extension of the national do- 

 main made the completion of the work impossible 

 in the interim. The work is still in progress by 

 Gray's successors. 



Gray's most widely known systematic work is 

 the "Manual of the Botany of the Northern United 

 States," which first appeared in 1848, and which he took 

 through five editions. The sixth edition, from the hand 

 of Sereno Watson, Gray's successor in taxonomic work, 

 appeared in 1889. From the first it has been the stan- 

 dard flora of its region. In 1808, Gray supplemented 

 the manual hv the "Field, Forest and Garden Botany," 

 which «,(. ,!i .i::v. .1 :i, an easy introduction to the com- 

 .: ' led plants. Gray regarded this 



as his ]... , \jt it met a need and has been 



deservr(ll\ p.;i;l:u. if has been our most acceptable 

 account of cultivateil plants. It lacks the critical spirit 

 of his other works, and the accounts of the cultivated 

 plants were drawn largely from literature, rather than 

 from the plants themselves. Working chiefly with taxo- 

 iMooM' (|U(stions, Gray found little interest in plants 

 w lihli, \,v ilMiiifstication, have been made to vary to the 

 cunlu-ioii"! the old specific bounds. Yet it is remark- 

 :ilili' liM.v .icnrately he indicated the species which 

 li:iv. liicii (liie My concerned in the evolution of garden 

 l.inii-. :iim; 1]i.«- comprehensively he covered the field of 

 ihr .loni.Mic ilora. A revision of the "Field, Forest and 

 Cir.i.u l'..iiaiiy" was made in 1895. 



Ill Ills viiw of species, Grav accepted the dominant 

 English ideal as held by the Hookers and by Benthain. 

 Species were large conjunctive groups: he tended to 

 make few rather than many. There were indications of 

 a revolt from this point of view in the later years, but 



