188 Asa Gray. 



son of Laurent de Jussieu, himself a worthy and distinguished 

 representative of a family unequalled in botanical fame and 

 accomplishment. 



" At Montpellier, Dr. Gray passed several days with the bot- 

 anists Delile and Dunal, and then hurried on to Italy, where at 

 Padua, in the most ancient botanical garden in Europe, he made 

 the acquaintance of Visiani, at that time one of the principal 

 botanists in Italy. At Vienna he saw the learned Endlicher, the 

 author of a classical " Genera Plantarum ; " and at Munich, Von 

 Martius, the renowned Brazilian traveler, the historian of the 

 palms, and the earliest contributor to that stupendous work, the 

 " Flora Brasiliensis, " which bears his name ; and here, too, was 

 Zuccarini, the collaborator with Von Siebold in the " Flora 

 Japonica. " Geneva then, as at the present time, was a center 

 of scientific activity ; and there he made the personal acquaint- 

 ance of the De Candolles, father and son, and worked in their 

 unrivalled herbarium and library. He saw Schlechtendal at 

 Halle ; and at Berlin, Klotzsch, Kunth, and Ehrenberg, — famil- 

 iar names in the annals of botanical science. Alphonse De Can- 

 dolle and Sir Joseph Hooker alone are left of the brilliant group 

 of distinguished naturalists who cordially welcomed the young 

 American botanist in 1839."* 



Dr. Gray also, while abroad, performed a great service for 

 the University of Michigan, in superintending the selection of 

 works for the nucleus of its library ; and the University showed 

 its appreciation of his judgment, and of the benefit to the in- 

 stitution, by honoring him, and itself, at its semi-centennial 

 celebration the past summer, by conferring on him the degree 

 of Doctor of Laws. 



Again at home, and now well equipped for conquering diffi- 

 culties about American species, he went at the Flora with new 

 vigor. The first volume was completed by Torrey and Gray 

 in 1840, and the second in February, 1843. In the interval 

 between these dates, during the summer of 1841, Gray spent 

 five to six weeks in a botanical excursion through the Valley of 

 Virginia to the summits of the high mountains of North Caro- 

 lina. A letter about the trip, addressed to Sir William J. 

 Hooker, published in this Journal in 1842, first gives an account 

 * From a sketch of Dr. Gray by Prof. C. S. Sargent. 



