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- 

 llniana, 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 



