684 



GRASSWORT 



GRAY 



GRASSWORT. See Cerastium. 



GRATlOLA (Latin, grace or favor, from its reputed 

 healing qualities). Scrophulariacece. This genus con- 

 tains an unimportant trailing annual, which grows wild 

 in wet, sandy places from Quebec to Fla., and bears 

 yellow fls.. half an inch long, from June to September. 

 G. aurea, Muhl.,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. 



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

 Madagascar). Melastomdcece. Three species of dwarf 

 warmhouse foliage plants, natives of Madagascar, and 



985. Asa Gray at 76 years. 



cult, in a few American conservatories. For culture and 

 for distinctions from allied genera, see Bertolonia, un- 

 der which name most of the varieties are still known. 



guttata, Triana (Bertolbnia guttata, Hook.). Caules- 

 cent, erect: branches obtusely 4-angled: petioles long, 

 densely scurfy-powdery: Ivs membranous, 5-nerved, 

 rotund at base, slightly scurfy above and spotted, under 

 side and calyx scurfy-powdery cymes terminal, several- 

 fid. Int.. 1865, and first described at B.M. 5524 as B. gut- 

 tata, where the Ivs. are shown with fairly well defined, 

 double, longitudinal rows of roundish pink dots. F. S. 

 16:1696 is probably a copy of B.M. 5524. (See, also, Gt. 

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

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

 dish purple spots, which are less regularly arranged. 

 Var. Legrelleana (B. Legrelleana, Van Houtte). An 

 alleged hybrid obtained by Van Houtte and figured in 

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

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

 spots. The nerves are outlined in white, and some of 

 the cross veins for short distances. Var. Alfred Bleu 

 is brilliantly spotted and lined with bright red, the 

 nerves boldly outlined, the cross veins interruptedly 

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

 son (B. margaritacea, Hort. W. ~Bn\\=Silpinga mar- 

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



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

 born in Paris, Oneida county, N. Y.,Nov. 18, 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 Plar 

 Grow," 1858, and "How Plants Behave," 1872. Graj 

 texts at once became standards, and have done more 

 make botany teachable in the schools than any otl 

 American works. They are expressions of the older 

 topical method of presenting plant subjects, as 



trasted with the newer ideals which first intro- 

 duce the pupil to biological or life problems. They 

 will always be known as having marked an epoch 

 in the teaching of botany in America. 



Gray was chiefly known for his taxonomic and 

 descriptive work with plants. It fell to his hand 

 to review the North American flora. The western 

 country was largely unknown botanically. The 

 collections of government surveys and of individ- 

 uals went to him for study. His publications on 

 this new flora are voluminous and critical. He also 

 reviewed the floras of many of the Pacific islands 

 and of Japan. His most ambitious work was the 

 "Synoptical Flora of North America." This great 

 work began to appear in 1838, at which time he was 

 a junior author with Torrey. After having passed 

 to two volumes, comprising the orders from Ra- 

 nunculacese through Composite?, the work was dis- 

 continued until, in 1878, he published the Gamo- 

 petala3 after Compositse. In 1884, he published the 

 families from Caprifoliaceae through Composite. 

 The necessity of studying the wealth of new mate- 

 rial resulting 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 1868, Gray supplemented 

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

 which was designed as an easy introduction to the com- 

 moner wild and cultivated plants. Gray regarded this 

 as his poorest work, yet it met a need and has been 

 deservedly popular, ft has been our most acceptable 

 account of cultivated 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- 

 nomic questions, Gray found little interest in plants 

 which, by domestication, have been made to vary to the 

 confusion of the old specific bounds. Yet it is remark- 

 able how accurately he indicated the species which 

 have been chiefly concerned in the evolution of gardeu 

 forms, and how comprehensively he covered the field of 

 the domestic flora. A revision of the "Field, Forest and 

 Garden Botany" was made in 1895. 



In his view of species, Gray accepted the dominant 

 English ideal as held by the Hookers and by Bentham. 

 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 



