310 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



more bent on making new species than in working out the great problem of 

 vej^etable life and organization as manifest in variety. 



When attacked by others he relied upon time to prove his views and not 

 on petty retaliation through newspaper paragraphs or published pamphlets. 

 No detraction of a fellow botanist was ever known to emanate from his pen 

 — but in gentleness his views or diiference wovild be stated. 



He was not a mere book or closet naturalist. He travelled and investi- 

 gated the fields and collected many of the plants he has described. Never 

 shall I forget the joyful expression of his face when, for the first time he 

 beheld and gathered some of the native plants in their natural habitat on 

 the sand dunes near the Cliff House, on his first visit to this coast. I had 

 the inexpressible pleasure of conveying him to the ocean side, and when he 

 beheld a certain plant growing on the side of the sand dune, in his enthusi- 

 asm he could not wait for the horses to stop, but sprang from the carriage, 

 and running to the spot elevated the plant in his hand and waved it in 

 triumph, as though he had captured an invaluable prize. The plant was 

 one he had described years before; it having been brought to the East in the 

 botanical collections of the U. S. Exploring Expedition (under Commander 

 Wilkes) of which expedition he was to have been the botanist, having 

 received the appointment in 1834, but owing to delays in starting he re- 

 signed his post in 1837. He however was appointed to edit the Phaner- 

 ogamic, part of the botany of that expedition, which was published under 

 the auspices of the government of the United States in two volumes— one 

 a large quarto of letter-press, the other a folio of plates which has become 

 exceedingly scarce and valuable. 



Dr. Gray is another striking example of the fact that the early training 

 afforded by the study of medicine has furnished to science some of the 

 most gifted and illustrious of her votaries, and has yielded her claim to 

 some of the greatest minds in the walks and works of the collateral branches of 

 the scientific field. Dr. Gray graduated in medicine at Fairfield College in 1831, 

 but relinquished his profession and adopted the study of botany for his life 

 pursuit. 



He was one of the modern scientists who, like Huxley and Tyndall, did 

 not entertain the idea that by popularizing his favorite branch he in any 

 ■wise detracted from the scientific character of his own reputation, or the 

 true value of his science. His juvenile works on physiological botany, 

 "Howi^lant-i grow" — and his "First principles of Botany," manifest the 

 clear comprehension as well as the adaptability of his mind to the wants of 

 his humblest followers. 



In a paper (as early as 1835) presented before the New York Lyceum of 

 Natural History, he described new, rare, and interesting facts relative to 

 phmts growing in northern and western parts of New York State which were 

 so important and of such a striking character as to call the attention of the 

 older botanists of that day to this new and rising genius in the botanical 

 firmament; and it was a matter of surprise that in a field so thoroughly ex- 

 plored that a young man should bring to light several new species and dis- 



