142 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



From the beginning of his botanical work, Dr. Gray believed 

 that the description and classification of the flowering plants was 

 of the utmost importance and after thirty-five years spent in the 

 development of this branch of botany he could safely be said to 

 stand at the head of American systematists, and ranked with the 

 great botanists of the world. His " Botanical Text-book," 

 " Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States," and 

 " How Plants Grow," and " How plants Behave " have been of 

 inestimable value to American students of botany. He died on 

 January 30, 1888. 



(From W. G. FARLOW, in Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of 

 Sciences, vol. 3, 1895, pp. 161-175. See also the biographical sketches in the 

 " Memorial of Asa Gray," published by the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences, 1888, and by JAMES D. DANA, in Amer. Journ. Set,, ser. 3, vol. 35, 

 1888, pp. 181-203.) 



ARNOLD GUYOT 



Born, September 28, 1807; died, February 8, 1884 



Guyot was descended from one of the Protestant families 

 which settled in Neuchatel after the revocation of the edict of 

 Nantes, and was born at Boudevilliers on September 28, 1807. 

 He was named after the Swiss patriot Arnold von Winkelried. 

 His boyhood was passed at Hauterive, and from his home there 

 he had glorious views of the Bernese Oberland, the Jungfrau, 

 the Schreckhorn, and other mountain peaks, which must have 

 helped to inspire in him the love of nature which he manifested 

 early in life. 



Young Guyot's first school days were spent at La Chaux-de- 

 Fonds, a village " at the foot of a narrow and savage gorge of the 

 Jura," 3,070 feet above the sea. At the age of 14 he entered the 

 College of Neuchatel, where he pursued classical studies and 

 also formed a friendship with Leo Lesquereux, the botanist, 

 which lasted throughout his life. In 1825 Guyot went to Ger- 

 many to complete his education. He spent some months at 

 Metzingen, and later at Carlsruhe in the family of Mr. Braun, 

 the father of Alexander Braun, the distinguished botanist and 



