446 A CENTURY OF SCIENCE 



and favorable influence which it has exerted upon the progress 

 of botanical science in the United States. Great as the merits 

 of the work undoubtedly are, we must nevertheless be excused 

 from adopting the terms of extravagant and sometimes equivocal 

 eulogy employed by a popular author, who gravely informs his 

 readers that no book, since printed Bibles were first sold in Paris 

 by Dr. Faustus, ever excited so much surprise and wonder as 

 did Dr. Torrey's edition of Lindley's Introduction to the Natural 

 System of Botany. Now we can hardly believe that either the 

 author or the American editor of the work referred to was ever 

 in danger, as was honest Dr. Faustus, of being burned for witch- 

 craft, neither do we find anything in its pages calculated to 

 produce such astonishing effects, except, perhaps, upon the 

 minds of those botanists, if such they may be called, who had 

 never dreamed of any important changes in the science since the 

 appearance of good Dr. Turton's translation of the Species 

 Plantarum, and who speak of Jussieu as a writer who has greatly 

 improved the natural orders of Linna3us." 



In the Journal for 1840 there is a large group of 

 unsigned book reviews under the heading, "Brief notices 

 of recent Botanical works, especially those most inter- 

 esting to the student of North American Botany." The 

 first of these short reviews deals with the second section 

 of Part VII of De Candolle's "Prodromus." In 1847 

 the consideration of the "Prodromus" is resumed by 

 the same author and the initials of A. G. are appended. 

 This indicates that Dr. Gray was probably the writer of 

 some of the unsigned book-reviews which had appeared 

 in the Journal between 1837 and 1840. Doubtless Silli- 

 man availed himself of the assistance of his associates, 

 Eli Ives and others, in New Haven, in the examination 

 of current botanical literature, and it is extremely prob- 

 able that he early secured help from young Dr. Gray, 

 who had shown himself to be a keen critic as well as a 

 pleasing writer. The notices of botanical works from 

 1840 bear marks of having been from the same hand. 

 They cover an extremely wide range of subjects. While 

 they are good-tempered they are critical, and they had 

 much to do with the development of botany, in this 

 country, along safe lines. 



Gray as Editor. Gray's name as associate editor of 

 the Journal appears in 1853. He had been a welcome 

 contributor, as we have seen, for many years. His 



