xvm 



worthy. His style was so easy, so flowing, and so constantly en- 

 livened by sprightly allusions and pleasing metaphors, that one can 

 read what he wrote for the mere pleasure of reading it. He was one 

 of the rare cases where science had appropriated to herself one who 

 who would have been an ornament to any purely literary profession." 



In 1842 Gray was appointed to fill the newly-endowed cbair (the 

 Fisher) of Natural History in Harvard College, to which was attached 

 the direction of the Botanical Gardens at Cambridge, Mass. From 

 this time he devoted his chief energies to creating a botanical library 

 and herbarium, and to the continuation of the Flora of North America. 

 For upwards of thirty years he fulfilled the duties of Lecturer and of 

 Director of the Gardens, during which he raised the whole botanical 

 establishment, garden, library, and herbarium, to first-rate importance. 

 In 1872 he was relieved of the duties of lecturing, and shortly after 

 of the charge of the garden, and had an assistant appointed to the 

 herbarium ; but he retained the title of Fisher Professor and Director 

 of the Gardens until his death. 



Having made six visits to Europe, entailing several lengthy stays 

 in England, in furtherance of the Flora, his wiry figure, his vivacity, 

 and the alertness of his intellect were well known in this country, 

 where his highly cultivated mind and the charm of his personality 

 won him friends in all circles of society. His last visit was in 1887, 

 soon after his return from which he was struck with paralysis, and 

 died on the 30th of the following January, on his seventy-eighth 

 birthday. 



Dr. Gray married, in 1858, Jane, daughter of C. G. Loring, of 

 Boston, and had no family. He was a correspondent of the Institute 

 of France, a Doctor of Laws of Oxford and Edinburgh, and a 

 Doctor of Science of Cambridge. He was elected foreign member of 

 the Linnean Society in 1850, and of the Royal Society in 1873. He 

 was a fellow or correspondent of the principal Continental scientific 

 academies, and had served as President and for sixteen years as Cor- 

 responding Secretary of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 

 and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 and he was a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution. He is credited 

 down to the year 1873 with no fewer than 107 papers in this 

 Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers, and with upwards of 350 

 scientific works and papers in a chronologically arranged catalogue of 

 these, appended to the 36th volume of the ' American Journal of Arts 

 and Sciences' (September, 1888). 



J. D. H. 



Sir William O'Shaughnessy Brooke, F.R.S., died on the 8th of 

 January, 1889, at Southsea, after a short illness. He was born in 

 Limerick iu 1809, and was therefore in his 80th year. His original 



