1888. | BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 51 
of work was so high that he might well have been pardoned 
had he shown little tolerance of the cruder work of others. 
But his criticisms, always discriminating, although they were 
at times severe, were never ill-natured nor personal, an 
among the countless reviews which he wrote there is scarcely 
one in which there is not something of commendation and 
encouragement to the author. His view of botany was 
broad, and he had no patience with those who sneer at wor 
which is not done in their own fashion, or in a direction 
which accords with their own tastes. From the nature of his 
training, and the condition of his surroundings, his own work 
which has of late appeared in some quarters and claims 
histories. 3 
The mental activity of Prof. Gray was certainly extraor- 
dinary. He had no idle moments. To him leisure did not 
‘mean a respite from work, but rather an opportunity for do- 
ing something more. After a hard day’s work on the Flora 
he would sit down in the evening as fresh as ever, and dash 
off reviews and notices with an ease and skill really marvel- 
ous. He wrote as easily as he talked, and all his writings, 
even the most unpretentious, were in the same graceful, flow- 
ing style, rippling with a delicate humor and sparkling 
with imagination. The social and scientific meetings, which 
he enjoyed so much, also demanded from him consider- 
able labor, for, as he was generally expected to speak, 
and was not contented with the formal phrases and ram- 
bling remarks of extemporaneous speakers, he usually, on 
such occasions, presented carefully written papers. In his 
later years his friends urged him to take more rest, but it was 
of no use; unless he was at work he was not happy 
might have supposed that, if ever, he would have felt that he 
could afford to rest on his seventy-fifth birthday, when the 
