406 Goodale — Development of Botany Since 1818. 



author and the initials of A. G. are appended. This indi- 

 cates that Dr. Gray was probably the writer of some of 

 the unsigned book-reviews which had appeared in the Jour- 

 nal between 1837 and 1840. Doubtless Silliman availed 

 himself of the assistance of his associates, Eli Ives 

 and others, in New Haven, in the examination of current 

 botanical literature, and it is extremely probable that he 

 early secured help from young* Dr. Gray, who had shown 

 himself to be a keen critic as well as a pleasing writer. 

 The notices of botanical works from 1840 bear marks of 

 having been from the same hand. They cover an 

 extremely wide range of subjects. While they are good- 

 tempered they are critical, and they had much to do with 

 the development of botany, in this country, along safe 

 lines. 



Gray as Editor. — Gray's name as associate editor of 

 the Journal appears in 1853. He had been a welcome 

 contributor, as we have seen, for many years. His 

 influence upon the progress of botany in the United 

 States was largely due to his connection with the Journal. 

 His reviews extended over a very wide range, and supple- 

 mented to a remarkable degree his other educational 

 work. It must be permitted to allude here to his sagacity 

 as a writer of educational treatises. In his first ele- 

 mentary text-book, published in 1836, he expressed wholly 

 original views in regard to certain phases of structure 

 and function in plants, which became generally adopted 

 at a later date. His Manual of Botany was constructed, 

 and subsequent editions were kept, on a plan which made 

 no appeal to those who wanted to work on lines of least 

 resistance; in fact he had no patience with those who 

 desired merely to ascertain the name of a plant. In the 

 Journal he emphasizes the desirability of learning all the 

 affinities of the plant under consideration. At a later 

 period, when entirely new chapters had been opened in 

 the life of plants, he sought by his contributions in the 

 Journal to interest students in this wider outlook. 



Professor C. S. Sargent has selected with good judg- 

 ment some of the more important scientific papers by 

 Professor Gray and has re-published them in a con- 

 venient form. 1 Many of these papers were contributed 

 to the Journal in the form of reviews. These reviews 



1 Scientific Papers of Asa Gray. Selected by Charles Sprague Sargent. 

 Two volumes, Boston, 1889 (see notice in vol. 38, 419, 1889). 



