ASA GRAY 171 



Gray made the most of his year; his letters 

 home are crowded with the joys of visits to old 

 friends, the making of new ones and the happy 

 times spent in botanic gardens. These epistles — 

 most of them — have been gathered in the Letters 

 of Asa Gray and present delightful reading for 

 all true botanists. 



The head of the Putnam firm — George Put- 

 nam — then living in London, guided him in 

 obtaining the books his friends recommended for 

 the University of Michigan; and it is easy to 

 imagine Gray walking around with a notebook, 

 jotting down titles, and also his pleasure in going 

 over the books on his return, as he dilated on their 

 special merits, lingering a while, before he put 

 one down, as he recalled the man or circum- 

 stances which had led to that particular purchase. 



The authorities of Michigan University were 

 quite willing to extend his furlough (without 

 pay) ; so Gray " took sharp hold of the Flora of 

 North America, and in June, 1840, put out parts 

 3 and 4 of vol. i, then went at the Compositae." 

 But the work was interrupted for a while, be- 

 cause he went with John Carey on a botanical 

 trip up the Valley of Virginia to the mountains of 

 North Carolina. 



Sometime in April, 1841, President Quincy, 

 of Harvard University, wrote offering him the 

 Fisher Professorship of Natural History, with 



