ASA GRAY 



1810-1888 

 Lilium Grayii — HOOKER AND ARNOTT 



Could our great men come into the world so 

 labelled, expectant relations would surely treas- 

 ure up for posterity all those evidences of genius 

 or the curious lack of it in childhood and youth 

 which so arouse our wonder in later years, when 

 they have passed within the hall of fame. But 

 the first generation dies, and the son who is leader 

 in the next has too great modesty to pour out 

 for an expectant, eager posterity all of his early 

 career. So, of Asa Gray, there survives only a 

 group of uncertain reminiscent planks with 

 which to bridge the gaps in an interesting life 

 — a life which started in the household of a 

 tanner in Sauquoit, Oneida County, New York, 

 on the 18th of November, 18 10, the parents being 

 Moses and Roxana Gray, the father hailing orig- 

 inally from Londonderry, Ireland, and the 

 mother from Kent, England. 



Not long after Asa's birth they moved to Paris, 

 Furnace Hollow, Sauquoit, and set up a tannery 

 and a shoe shop. " Of the tannery," says Gray, 



165 



