192 Asa Gray. 



the Rhine to Geneva, where he worked awhile in DeCandolle's 

 herbarium), we went to Munich and saw Martius, and then 

 back to England by Holland. On the first of October we went 

 into Herefordshire to the country place of George Bentham, 

 and spent two months there, Mr. Bentham going over with Dr. 

 Gray the collection which had been sent out from America, a 

 most generous piece of work." It was at this time, while at 

 the Kew Gardens, near London, that he had the passing intro- 

 duction to Darwin, alluded to in Darwin's first letter to him.* 

 In 1S68, he crossed the ocean the fourth time, going in Sep- 

 tember and returning in November of the following year. He 

 was hard at work over herbaria at Kew during both autumns ; 

 and worked also in Paris, Munich, Geneva, and elsewhere, but 

 with more holiday than in any journey he took except the last. 

 In this visit he was twice with Darwin, first in the autumn of 

 1868, and then in October, 1869. 



After forty years of studying and discriminating among the 

 older species of the continent and their representatives abroad, 

 and of describing species from late discoveries, and of work 

 at classification, with experimental work at Flora-making during 

 the years 1838 to 1843, he was finally ready, in 1878, with the 

 first part of a new North American " Flora," to which he 

 gave the name of " Synoptical Flora of North America. " 

 This first part contained the Gamopetalae after the Composites. 

 A second part was published in 1884, comprising the Caprifol- 

 iacese to the Composite inclusive, or the ground of the second 

 volume of Torrey and Gray's Flora; so that the middle half of the 

 entire Flora is now completed. The two parts cover 974 closely 

 printed pages. " They are masterpieces of clear and concise 

 arrangement, and of compactness and beauty of method, and 

 display great learning and analytical power." The progress of 

 the science since the time of Michaux is well exhibited in the 

 fact that while this author knew 193 species of Compositae 

 when he published his Flora, Gray, seventy-five years later, 

 describes no less than 1636 species under 239 genera. 



During these years, Dr. Gray added to the resources of the 

 instructor in Botany by the publication of his " Manual," a 



* Darwin's Life and Letters, p. 420. 



