which it relates. From another volume of the same Journal 

 we cite the following interesting details relating to the book 

 which caused so much commotion : — 



- " I always look back," says Dr. Gray, "with pleasure to the time that 

 I spent in collecting plants and in studying and teaching botany, and 

 especially to the period when I was occupied in preparing the systematic 

 part of the ' Natural Arrangement of British Plants,' the work that first 

 introduced the natural system of plants to the student of English botany ; 

 for I need make no secret of the fact that I alone am responsible for that 

 part of the work, since, though it was published under my father's name, 

 he wrote the introduction only. Having in his youth studied British plants 

 according to the system of Ray, he never would adopt the Linnean system ; 

 and the only interest that he took in the systematic part of the work 

 was that he considered the ' Genera Plantarum ' of Jussieu as a revision 

 and modification, according to the increase of knowledge, of the Rayian 

 method, while he regarded the Linnean system as only a dictionary by 

 means of which the names of plants could be most easily discovered. 

 The kind encouragement and assistance which I received during its pre- 

 paration from M. De Candolle, the father, and M. Dunal, of Geneva 

 (then in England), from Mr. R. A. Salisbury, and from my dear friends, 

 Edward Bennett, the late secretary of the Zoological Society, and J. J. 

 Bennett, now [lately] Keeper of the Botanical Collection in the Museum, 

 and the use that the course of study it necessitated has been to me in 

 after life, fully made up for all the obstructions and difficulties that were 

 thrown in my way by other botanists, which delayed the appearance of 

 the work for nearly a year, and for the ill-will exhibited towards me for 

 many years after. But their opposition was of no avail ; the natural 

 system has been established for years ; and though the work was not a 

 success — and, indeed, how could one be that attempted to introduce at 

 once into English botany almost all that had been done on the Continent 

 up to the period of its publication, and thus was so far in advance of the 

 then state of botanical knowledge in England, where the study had been 

 under the incubus of a blind attachment to the Linnean system 1 — yet it 

 has kept its ground ; and the very opposition was useful to me by causing 

 me to pay more attention to analytical studies, and to carry into zoology 

 the knowledge, accurate terminology, and systematic method of study 

 employed in the sister science, which has led me to believe that the study 

 of botany is the best introduction, even now, for the successful prosecu- 

 tion of the other branches of natural science." 



Dr. Gray was a most laborious and active worker in various 

 fields of natural history, over-given to controversy — the result, 

 perhaps, of his early experiences — but a warm friend, and 



