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[Goortale. 
second event was his acceptance of the position of botanist to the 
Wilkes’ expedition. Of this he says, “In the summer of 1836, 1 was 
appointed botanist to the great South Pacific exploring expedition, 
which met with all manner of delays in fitting out and changes in 
commanders till finally in the spring Lieutenant Wilkes was ap- 
pointed to command. The number of vessels was cut down and 
the scientific corps more or less diminished. The assistant bot- 
anist, William Rich, an appointment of the secretary of the navy 
was left out and I resigned in his favor.” 
The third event in this period was his provisional acceptance of 
the Professorship of Natural History in the newly chartered Uni- 
versity of Michigan. He stipulated that he should have more time 
for preparation, part of which time he designed to spend abroad. 
He says that he had done fully half the work on the flora of N. A. 
which Torrey had in hand, “and he invited me to be the joint au- 
thor.” He now went to Europe to fit himself for higher botanical 
work by the examination of the older herbaria, and he carried also 
a commission from the University of Michigan to procure its li- 
brary. 
Although he never entered on active service at Ann Arbor, he 
was always interested in the institution, and his temporary con- 
nection with it led to very pleasant relation with the authorities 
in later times. No message more fully freighted with good wishes 
came from any source at the celebration of Dr. Gray’s seventy- 
fifth birthday, than the greetings from the officials of the University 
of Michigan. At its last Commencement, being the semi-centen- 
nial, the University of Michigan gave Dr. Gray its Doctorate of 
Laws. 
The journey to Europe was fruitful in many ways. He made 
himself familiar with the earlier collections from America, and be- 
came personally acquainted with all the leading botanists of Eu- 
rope, to whom by that time he was known by his thorough work. 
It must ever be a source of regret that Dr. Gray did not carry out 
his purpose of recording fuller reminiscences of those men. This 
journey to Europe may be regarded as the most important of the 
four events. 
With the third period of his life, that which began and ended at 
Cambridge, the older members of this society, now alas ! so few, are 
familiar. They remember that on his assumption of the duties of 
the chair in Harvard University, he gave no small portion of his 
