404 Goodale — Development of Botany Since 1818. 



from Dr. Ives of New Haven, ' ' and Dr. Lewis C. Beck of 

 Albany, author of Botany of the United States North of 

 Virginia. At that period he made the acquaintance 

 of Dr. John Torrey of New York, with whom he later 

 became associated in most important descriptive work. 

 During the years between his graduation in medicine and 

 1842, the year when he came to Harvard College, his 

 activities were diverse and intense; so that his prep- 

 aration for his distinguished career was very broad and 

 thorough. His first visit to Europe, in 1838, brought him 

 into personal relations with a large number of the botan- 

 ists of Great Britain and the Continent. This extensive 

 acquaintance, added to his broad training, enabled him 

 even from the outset to exert a profound influence upon 

 the progress of his favorite science. He made the 

 Journal tributary to this development. His name first 

 appears as associate editor in 1853, but there are articles 

 in the Journal from his pen which bear an earlier date. 

 The first of these early botanical papers is the following : 

 "A Translation of a memoir entitled 'Beitrage zur Lehre 

 von der Befruchtung der Pflanzen,' (contributions to the 

 doctrine of the impregnation of plants, by A. J. C. 

 Corda:) with prefatory remarks on the progress of dis- 

 covery relative to vegetable fecundation; by Asa Gray, 

 M. D." (31, 308, 1837). Dr. Gray says that he made the 

 translation from the German for his own private use, 

 but thinking that it might be interesting to the Lyceum, 

 he brought it before the Society, with "a cursory account 

 of the progress of discovery respecting the fecundation 

 of flowering plants, for the purpose of rendering the 

 memoir more generally intelligible to those who are not 

 particularly conversant with the present state of botan- 

 ical science. ' ' The translation occupies six pages of the 

 Journal, while the prefatory remarks fill nine pages. 

 The prefatory remarks constitute an exhaustive essay on 

 the subject, embodied in attractive and perfectly clear 

 language. The translator shows complete familiarity 

 with the matter in hand and gives an adequate account of 

 all the work done on the subject up to the date of 

 M. Corda 's paper. A second important paper by him 

 near this period is his review of "A Natural System of 

 Botany : or a systematic view of the Organization, Natu- 

 ral Affinities, and Geographical Distribution of the whole 

 Vegetable Kingdom; together with the use of the more 



