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, 



i8 37 ." 



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. 



