ASA GRAY. 105 



the herbaria of Clayton, Catesby, and Plukenet; the plants of 

 Michaux, Pursh, Douglas, Drummoud, Mitchell, Bradbury, and 

 Richardson ; the herbaria of Schkuhr, Willdenow, and Lehmann, 

 and many others which it is not necessary to mention in order to 

 demonstrate the intellectual industry and botanical zeal of the 

 younger of the two authors of the new American Flora." 



In 18-10, an excellent paper from Dr. Gray's pen, entitled, 

 1 Notices of European Herbaria, particularly those most interesting 

 to the North-American Botanist,' appeared in the ■ American 

 Journal of Science and Arts.' His account of the Linn&an her- 

 barium is very full, and his evident appreciation of the work of the 

 older men — Menzies, Aiton, Dryander, and Banks — is very plea- 

 sant. "The collections at the British Museum,' 1 he says, "are 

 scarcely inferior in importance to the Linnsean herbarium itself, in 



aiding the determination of the species of Linnaeus and other early 

 authors." 



"When Grey returned, arrangements at Michigan were not com- 

 pleted, so he obtained a renewal of leave, and settled down to work 

 with Torrey in New York, at the 'Flora of North- America.' The 

 first volume was completed in 1840, the first part of vol. ii. 

 appeared in 1841, and the second in 1842. The elaboration of 

 the Composite , an order in which he was always specially in- 

 terested, was entirely from his pen. In this year, on the occasion 

 of a visit to Boston, he was offered the Fisher Professorship of 

 Natural History in Harvard University. Accepting this, he went 

 to Cambridge in July of the same year, and remained there till 

 his death. 



From this period onward, Asa Gray's life was unremittingly 

 levoted to his favourite science. The herbarium, the lecture-room, 

 and the study, engrossed the whole of his time ; and it was thus 

 that, besides the systematic and descriptive publications which 

 constantly issued from his pen, he found time to write popular 

 introductions to botany and text-books of the science, as well as 

 reviews of the work of others, biographical memoirs, papers on 

 Darwinism, and miscellaneous contributions to a long list of 

 journals, among which we are glad to be able to include our own. 

 Whatever he did, he did well. 



It would be impossible here even to enumerate Dr. Gray's con- 

 tributions to botanical science, nor is it nece >ary to do so. One or 

 two of the most important may be referred to in passing. What 

 student of North-American botany does not take as his text-book 



*to 'Manual of the Botany of the North United Stat ,' the 



first edition of which appeared in 1848, and the eighth issue of 

 the 5th edition in 1878? The 'Botanical Text-book.* which was 

 fi^t i^ued in 1812, had attained a 5th edition in 1857, each 

 edition being, as the author tells us, "in good part re-written." 

 The growth of the science had been such, however, that m 1 o 

 it was considered desirable to divide what had been one book into 

 fo **; the first, on 'Structural Botany/ written 1 Dr. Gray, 

 appeared in 1879 ; the last—a sketch of the Natural Orders, winch 

 to "hoped rather than expected himself to draw up/' must be 



