286 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME. _ [1842, 
New York, 30th May, 1842. 
I have the pleasure to inform you that having ac- 
cepted the offer from Harvard University of which I 
apprised you in my letter of April 1, I was appointed 
to the professorship on the 30th of April last. The in- 
cessant occupation of this month has prevented me 
from writing to you sooner, and still prevents me send- 
ing anything beyond this hasty note. I hope in a week 
or so to have my new text-book finished, when I shall 
visit Cambridge to make the necessary arrangements 
for my removal thither. I hope hereafter to be a use- 
ful correspondent to you, in the way of supplying you 
with seeds and living plants of our own country, and 
-when I see what can be done with our Garden I shall 
probably ask you to aid us. I wish to visit the moun- 
tains of Carolina again, in autumn, to procure roots 
and seeds. . . . 
In the spring of 1842, as his last letter intimated, 
Dr. Gray was appointed to the Fisher professorship 
of natural history in Harvard College. He was then 
thirty-one years old. He removed to Cambridge in 
July, taking lodgings near the colleges at Deacon 
unroe’s, on what is now James Street. 
Before Dr. Gray came to Cambridge he had been 
elected into the American Academy (November 10, 
1841). He threw himself with the greatest interest 
into its work. Scarcely any winter storm kept him 
from its meetings ; all other engagements had to give 
way. And when new life began in its publications, 
many of his most important papers appeared in its 
volumes. 
He was also influential in establishing a scientific 
club consisting of members of the college faculty an 
