ASA GRAY 169 



ing the deeper side of his nature and creating a 

 lifelong faith. 



In the spring of 1835 he went home for a 

 while, armed with such books as De Candolle's 

 Organographia and Theorie Elementaire, which 

 he " devoured like novels." Here, too, he partly 

 wrote his Elements of Botany. Returning to 

 New York and taking cheap lodgings, he found 

 " the prospect for daily bread rather dark " ; but 

 Carvill, of New York City, agreed to take his 

 Elements and give him $150. His friend, John 

 Carey, 1 helped read the proofs, over which there 

 was " warm and noisy discussion ' as they 

 worked together at his boarding-house. Brighter 

 times came when the New York Lyceum of 

 Natural History completed its hall and ap- 

 pointed Gray Curator, on very small pay, but 

 with time to write. " There I wrote my papers 

 Remarks on the Structure and Affinities of the 

 Ceratophyllaceae, 1837, not a very wise produc- 

 tion, and some of the observations are incorrect; 

 also the better paper, really rather good, Mel- 

 anthacearum Americae Septentrionalis Revisio, 



1837." . . 



Torrey had planned and was working very 

 slowly on his Flora of North America when 

 Gray came offering his leisure to work up some 



1 John Carey, botanist, 1880, wrote chapters on "Willows" 



and " Sedges " in the Manual of Botany. 



