ASA GRAY 167 



stoves and let some of the buyers feed Asa and 

 a fellow-student in lieu of paying for the goods. 

 " One woman fed us so much on boiled salt cod, 

 not always of the freshest, that the sight of that 

 dish still calls up ancient memories not altogether 

 agreeable. ' : 



The spring and summer of 1827 were passed 

 with Dr. Priest of Sauquoit, and in the course of 

 the winter at Fairfield he bought Eaton's Manual 

 of Botany, " pored over its pages and waited for 



spring I sailed forth one April day into 



the bare woods, found an early specimen of a 

 plant in flower peeping through dead leaves, 

 brought it home, and, with Eaton's Manual, with- 

 out much difficulty I ran it down to its name 

 Claytonia Virginica. (It was really C. Caro- 

 liniana, but the two were not distinguished in 

 that book.) I was well pleased, and went on col- 

 lecting and examining all the flowers I could lay 



hands on I began an herbarium of 



shockingly bad specimens." 



" In addition to Dr. Hadley's summer course 

 of lectures on chemistry, Dr. Lewis C. Beck used 

 to come and deliver a short course of lectures on 

 botany. He gave this up the year in which I 

 received my M. D. ; so Professor Hadley invited 

 me to come and give the course instead." 



About two years after, Professor Torrey en- 

 gaged Gray to go and collect plants in the pine 



