280 General Notes. 
Systematic Conchology, in two volumes, issued in 1883. The 
latter is a magnificent work, profusely illustrated, but was only 
preliminary to the crowning work of his life, which, unhappily, he 
has been unable to finish. This was his Manual of Conchology, 
Structural and Systematic, of which the first volume appeared in 
1879, and of which nine volumes of the first series, on marine 
shells, and three of the second, on land shells, have been issued. 
It is no exaggeration to say that this is the most extensive system- 
atic work on any branch of natural science which has yet appeared 
in the United States. The collection of shells of the Philadel- 
phia Academy of Natural Sciences was largely his gift to the insti- 
tution, and it was one of the largest in the world. The library 
Sheppard a pamphlet series of operas, which is very popular, and 
essayed on several occasions original music work, including an 
opera. 
—Asa Gray.—Born in Sauquoit, Oneida county, N. Y., No- 
vember 18, 1810. Died in Cambridge, Mass., January 30, 1888. 
When a great man dies, it is fitting that his survivors should re- 
count his deeds, and learn the lessons which his life and labors 
teach. Born in the poverty and obscurity of a backwoods village, 
far from any of the great centres of learning, there was nothing 0 
promise in the future for the little tanner boy of the Mohawk Val- 
ley. When he urged the unwilling horse on his tiresome round, and 
wearily labored at his monotonous task of feeding the bark-mill, who 
could have foretold his after greatness? What prophet could have 
seen in the village school-boy, so far removed from all incentives 
to the study of science, the future leader of one of the great 
branches of science in America ? 
Denied the advantages of a collegiate education, he completed, at 
the age of twenty, the study of medicine in the Fairfield College 
of Physicians and Surgeons for the Western District of New 
York, and doubtless the scientific studies of the course had much 
to do with making him what in his after life he always was, em- 
phatically a scientific man. His botanical work began during his 
study of medicine, and by the time of his graduation he had already 
done something in the way of collecting and identifying the plants 
of his locality. ; 
The great event of the young botanist’s life was his meeting, 
when twenty-one years of age, with Dr: John Torrey, then teach- 
ing in New York City. Under the inspiration of Torrey, his 
studies were led into those lines of work in which his life was des- 
tined to be spent. In his herbarium and by his help Gray’s first 
botanical contribution (viz.: “North American Graminee and : 
