202 Asa Gray. 



Just Fate : prolong his life, well spent, 



Whose indefatigable hours 

 Have been as gaily innocent 



And fragrant as his flowers. 



The vase is about eleven inches high exclusive of the ebony 

 pedestal. The pedestal is surrounded by a hoop of hammered 

 silver on which is the inscription 



1810 November eighteenth 1885 



ASA GKAY 



In token of the universal esteem 



of American Botanists 



Among the flowers, in raised figures about the vase, the 

 place of honor on one side is held by Grayia polygaloides, and 

 on the other by Shortia galacifolia. On the Grayia side, the 

 prominent plants are Aquilegia Canadensis, Centaur ea Ameri- 

 cana, Jeffersonia diphylla, Rudbeckia speciosa and Mitchella 

 repens / and on the Shortia side, there are Lilium Grayi, 

 Aster Bigelovii, Solidago serotina and Epigaza repens. The 

 lower part of the handles runs into a cluster of Dionsea leaves, 

 which clasps the body of the vase, and their upper part is 

 covered with JSfotholcena Grayi. Adhimia cirrhosa trails 

 over the whole back-ground, and here and there its leaves and 

 flowers crop out. The greetings, in the form of cards and 

 letters, that had been sent by the givers of the vase, were 

 placed on a simple but elegant silver plate, which had within 

 the engraved inscription : Bearing the greetings of one 

 hundred and eighty botanists of north america to asa 

 Gray, on his seventy-fifth birthday, November 18th, 

 1885.* 



Botanists have, as their common object of interest, that part 

 of Nature which seems by its free gift of beauty and fragrance 

 (without a trace of self, the dominating element in the animal) 

 fully to reciprocate affection ; and there is hence a reason for 

 that feeling of fraternity which such a gift so beautifully ex- 

 presses, independently of the tribute in it to the botanist of 

 botanists. Plants seem thus to select from among enquiring 

 minds those which are to be their investigators, or the botanists. 



* This description of the vase is from the "Botanical Gazette" of December 

 1885, which contains also good figures of the vase. 



