42 BOTANY. 
memorial addressed to you by Professors Torrey, Brewer, Eaton. and my- 
self. It still appears to me that the friends of Dr. Parry are entitled to 
know the reason of his summary dismissal by you,—all the more so that 
your letter intimates, without directly asserting, some moral delinquency. 
on his part. Iam still so confident that you must have been misled, that 
I respectfully ask leave to print your letter to me along with the memo- 
rial to which it is a reply; in case you still decline to furnish the charges 
upon which Dr. Parry’s dismissal was grounded. 
I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, 
ASA GRAY. 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, i 
Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 1871. ) 
To Professor ASA GRAY. 
Dear Sm:— Yours of the 30th of November was handed to me yester- 
day by Professor Henry. If it were not that you say that my former "g 
ter to you “ intimates without directly asserting some moral delinguency 
on Dr. Parry’s part, I would content myself by saying that my judgmem® 
dictated to me the propriety of Dr. Parry’s removal. But I have Con- 
cluded to put you in possession of the whole subject. a: 
When I took charge of this Department, my first duty was to look into 
and to understand the divisions of subjects which make up its whole, the 
work that had been done, and the character and competency of each indi- 4 
vidual who had charge of that work. Among the divisions was that of 
the Botanist, with Dr. Parry in charge of it. My attention was called to 
the inquiry, how and to what extent the work of this division conduced 
to the practical operations of the Department. I found that nothing at 
all had been done by Dr. Parry beyond his attention to the preserva) me 
of the herbarium. This Department is designed to render the develop- 
ments and deductions of science directly available to practice, that far- 
mers and horticulturists may be benefited by them. The principles a 
vegetable physiology, their relations to climate, soils, and the food ee 
plants, and the diseases of plants, which are principally of fungoid origin, 
it is clearly the duty of a botanist to investigate. If possible, he sho 
throw some light upon the origin and condition of growth of the lower 
orders of cryptogamic botany. This is a domain into which IT could not 
discover that Dr. Parry had ever entered, so far as his practical WO 
here gave any indication. The routine operations of a mere herbariu™ 
botanist are practically unimportant. i 
In the course of my investigation, my attention was also drawn to 1" 
mode of expression, wanting in perspicuity and not creditable to the 
partment. These things, and what I also learned that my pre 
had signified to Dr. Parry, to the effect that his letters should be subn 
ted to him and for his signature before they were sent away, induced’ e 
, to direct my chief clerk to have a conversation with Dr. Parry, and # 
say to him that, as the head of the Department, I was responsible 
a 
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