Goodale — Development of Botany Since 1818. 403 



its relations to natural history. Silliman possessed 

 great sagacity in selecting for his enterprise all the nov- 

 elties which promised to be of service in the advancement 

 of science. In 1825 (9, 263) the Journal republished 

 from the Edinburgh Journal of Science an essay by Dr. 

 (afterwards Sir) William Jackson Hooker, on American 

 Botany. In this essay the author states that "the 

 various scientific Journals'' which "are published in 

 America, contain many memoirs upon the indigenous 

 plants. Among the first of these in point of value, and 

 we think also the first with regard to time, we must name 

 Silliman 's Journal of Science." The author enumerates 

 some of the contributors to the Journal and the titles of 

 their papers. 



It has been a useful practice of the Journal, almost 

 from the first, to transfer to its pages memoirs which 

 would otherwise be likely to escape the notice of the 

 majority of American botanists. The book notices and 

 the longer book reviews covered so wide a field that they 

 placed the readers of the Journal in touch with nearly all 

 of the current botanical literature both here and abroad. 

 These critical notices did much towards the symmetrical 

 development of botany in the United States. And as we 

 shall now see, the Journal notices and reviews in the 

 hands of Asa Gray continued to be one of the most 

 important factors in the advancement of American 

 botany. 



Asa Gray and the Journal. 



In 1834 there appears in the Journal (25, 346) a 

 ' ' Sketch of the Mineralogy of a portion of Jefferson and 

 St. Lawrence Counties, New York, by J. B. Crawe of 

 Watertown and A. Gray of Utica, New York." This 

 appears to be the first mention in the Journal of the 

 name of Dr. Asa Gray, who, shortly after that date, 

 became thoroughly identified with its botanical interests. 

 In the early part of his career both before and imme- 

 diately- after graduating in medicine, Gray gave much 

 attention to the different branches of natural history in 

 its wide sense. He not only studied but taught "chemis- 

 try, geology, mineralogy, and botany," the latter branch 

 being the one to which he devoted most of his attention. 

 Among his early guides in the pursuit of botany may be 

 mentioned Dr. Hadley, "who had learned some botany 



