CHAPTER VIII.

FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK.

1880-1888.

Dr. Gray sailed for Europe with Mrs. Gray early in September, 1880. He went especially to study herbaria for his new volume of the “Synoptical Flora,” and saw almost every collection of importance, giving especial attention to the subject of asters. The autumn was spent in western France and Spain, and in Madrid he looked over the herbarium there. He declared nobody had ever had so many asters pass through his hands as he had had!

The winter was spent in hard work in the Kew herbarium. He enjoyed heartily in spring a journey through Italy with his friends Sir Joseph and Lady Hooker, returning to Kew to spend the summer, at work in the herbarium, and he sailed again for home in October, 1881, landing early in November.

TO JOHN H. REDFIELD.

HÔTEL CONTINENTAL, PARIS, October 3, 1880.

MY DEAR REDFIELD,--Many thanks for letter of 17th September, which reached me at Kew, where we passed a busy and happy fortnight with the Hookers, and did some botanical work. We left Friday morning, reached Paris pleasantly that evening, where we make only two days more stay at present, but leave Tuesday for the Loire district and thence to Spain, but expect to return here after our round, and stay possibly a month. Play first, work afterwards, is our present motto. If the Academy, or any of the brethren, take Garber’s little Porto Rico collection, you or they will be glad to know that Professor Oliver and I named them up while I was at Kew, and that the list has been forwarded to D. C. Eaton. News I have little to tell you. Yet, though we left home only a month ago, it seems a half year. We had a botanical concours at Kew; for De Candolle and wife came over, as he says, to see Mrs. Gray and me, and the Hookers gave two dinner parties on the occasion; present four botanists, whose united ages sum up high, for Bentham had his eightieth birthday just before, De Candolle is about seventy-five, I on the verge of seventy, and Hooker, the baby of the set, in his sixty-fourth year; some younger botanists were with us,--Oliver, Baker, Masters, young Balfour, etc.

TO J. D. HOOKER.

MALAGA, August 30, 1880.

... As to pictures, you know I am no picture sharp; but Madrid and Seville (which must be taken together) are a revelation of Murillo and Velasquez.... That kind of thing is nearly over with us on leaving attractive and sunny Seville. We cut off Jerez and Cordova, and came in here yesterday through olive groves enough to saponify and saladulate creation, and the passage through the mountains from Bobadilla to Malaga, wonderfully grand, ending in orange groves filling lovely dells and valleys. Nothing to keep us long here, though picturesqueness is not wanting. The days are hot. At Granada, to which we fly to-morrow afternoon, we expect to find the _juste milieu_....

One bit of this sheet to tell you that Joey’s portrait has been painted by Murillo, and a good likeness, hair, pose, and features. He is holding a bird aloft, and a white little dog is looking up wistfully at it, to Joey’s delight. It is in the Museum at Madrid, and is much admired....

TO R. W. CHURCH.

THE ALHAMBRA, GRANADA, November 2, 1880.

It is time that you should be thanked for the notes you kindly sent us. They will come of use later. You will wish to know what we have been doing for the past month, only a month by the almanac, for we left England October 1, and Paris on the 6th, the latter being the date we count from. So that there is not yet quite a month of travel, yet it seems a long while, as if stored with a year’s memories. And the weather throughout has been superb. One cold day in Paris, and some cool nights between Bordeaux and Madrid; and then, even at Madrid, we had summer rather than autumn weather, until, ascending from Malaga to this higher region, the cool and fresh air which comes down from the snow-flecked Sierra Nevada makes the sunshine pleasant and wraps desirable at nightfall.

A few midday hours served for Orleans, and we went on to Blois. You know how very charming that is, and you may imagine Mrs. Gray’s delight at the castle, also at Chambord, to which we drove. Two nights there and three at Tours. The cathedral charmed us; also the old houses and ruined bits and towers. We passed Amboise, and went from Tours to Chenonceaux and back by railway,--a bijou to be enjoyed; but the next day’s excursion to Lôches had a much deeper and more varied interest. By traveling over night to Bayonne and passing Biarritz at sunrise, a noble sunrise and morning, with the Atlantic on one side and the Cantabrian Pyrenees on the other, we gained the privilege of a daylight journey from Irun to Burgos. It is far more picturesque and striking than I had supposed. A day at Burgos was a treat, as you may suppose. Leon lay out of our track and demanded night hours and night changes too severe and too formidable for a couple ignorant of Spanish and impatient of couriers. So we went on overnight to Madrid (night travel being inevitable); and here we had a warm, sunny, busy, and most enjoyable week, some pleasant home-friends for companions, as also a charming Spanish family, M. and Mme. Riaño, whom we had met at our minister’s, Lowell, at London. She is a daughter of Gayangos and had an English mother; is a charming mixture of Spanish and English and everything that is bright and good. Then there was a raree-show not to be matched out of Spain: the royal family with the infanta going to church in state, the grand procession kindly going and returning under our windows. The Armeria and, still more, the Archeological Museum were full of the Old World things we Americans dote on. And then the great picture-gallery, supplemented not a little by the Academia San Fernando. Add to these the pictures at Seville, and imagine the treat we have had. I shall leave all this for Mrs. Gray to expatiate upon next winter.

We now know Murillo, and rank him next to Titian, and in feeling and delicacy much above him. He could paint something besides Spanish-girl Madonnas, lovely as they are, and Spanish beggars, where he had only to copy from the streets; and whoever has not seen St. Elisabeth of Hungary, the Roman Senator and his Wife, the Guardian Angel, Moses striking the Rock, and its companion, the Loaves and Fishes, and the St. Antony of Padua, down to whom the Infant Christ lightly floats, encircled with child angels, has not yet seen the works of Murillo. Then Velasquez, most noble, and Zurbaran and Ribera, and Cano, Morales, and Moro, and others whom I never knew aught about before. At Toledo we passed two days and three nights, well filled with sights of Old World things hardly touched by the later ages; and there is the grandest of cathedrals; and yet the interior of that of Seville is rather more satisfying. These three, Burgos, Toledo, Seville, I should place in this ascending order, or bracketing the latter two.

A journey overnight brought us at sunrise into Andalusia, at Cordova, which we passed (to take on the way from Granada), and so to Seville for breakfast, three happy, sunny, busy days there, and then to Malaga, two days, and then on to this place, which we reached after dark, and are now enjoying our second day in.

There are two hotels up here, under the Alhambra walls, and we are at one of them. Yesterday the road which rises to the crown of the hill was crowded with people of the town below, going up to the cemetery with flowers and lamps and candles and drapery, to ornament the tombs and graves of relatives, which here is done on All Saints’ Day, and we saw the curious sight by day and walked up again in the evening, when all was alight, and in a chapel a sort of requiem service performing. We will not describe the Alhambra. I fancied I should think the work finical; but you are carried away by it. But of most interest was our visit to the Cathedral of Granada this morning and to the Capilla Real, to see all the relics and contemporary memorials of Ferdinand and Isabella, their effigies, sword, sceptre, etc., their noble tombs, more rich and beautiful, I think, than those of the Constable and his wife at Burgos, and then to descend into the vault and see their rude iron coffins, which have not been desecrated nor molested, and also those of Philip I. and his poor wife Joanna. (Let us tell you, some day, of a modern Spanish picture, at Madrid, of her and her husband’s coffin, which she wearily had carried with her.) All this, and what we see here on the spot of the Moorish life, and what we saw at the cathedral, gives a vivid reality that nothing else can.

And here my sheet is full and my gossip must be cut short, with short space to add the kindest remembrances and love which my wife joins in sending to you and yours and daughters.

TO J. D. HOOKER.

HÔTEL ST. ROMAIN, PARIS, November 14, 1880.

Here we are back at Paris (since twenty hours), and, this being Sunday, having discharged my religious duty and ventilated my patriotism by going in the morning to the American Chapel I am going to discharge upon you a missive which may be of some size,--is sure to be so if I open all my mind. Whence did I write you last? Malaga, I fancy, where I received a letter from you ... which tells us of the conflagration of Charlie’s dog and cat, and the narrow escape of the owner, of horrid weather, while we have had only one rainy day, and that no great impediment (though I did have to examine the Botanic Garden at Valencia under an umbrella and in india-rubbers)....

A good day was occupied in going to Cordova, and the next morning did the Mosque-Cathedral, which I expected to be disappointing, yet it was not. Afternoon began the long journey which there was no escaping, northeast to Valencia: a dull place made duller by rain. Next afternoon to Tarragona, and a most charming day in that interesting old town and its environs, the evening taking us on to Barcelona, of less interest. The next day’s travel, long and delightful, was all by daylight, except the last hour. It took us along either beautiful or picturesque country, much of the way with the Mediterranean on one side and the Pyrenees on the other, out of Spain and as far as Narbonne. A day’s excursion was given to Carcassonne; perfect, and stranded on the shore of time, an excellent example of a Middle Age fortified city, cathedral and all; Visigoth walls and towers on Roman foundations, extended and modernized by the father of St. Louis, and the finishing touches by St. Louis himself.

Here endeth the epistle. The rest is simply getting back to Paris. I had counted on returning by way of Nîmes, Clermont-Ferrand, and a little détour to see the cathedral of Bourges. But the winds from the mountains made Narbonne and Carcassonne cold, the few trains from Nîmes were unseasonable, my wife declared she had so many cathedrals mixed up in her head that she could not endure another, and so, leaving Narbonne in early morning, we reached Cette ten minutes after the express train for Paris had left, and we came on in omnibus train in unbroken journey, through Montpellier, Nîmes, and Avignon (which we had visited, in former years), and via Lyons to Paris. And here we are.

Two months of play, delicious play, are up: we landed two months ago to-morrow. We have had our share, and I have now an appetite for work. I can be usefully busy in Paris for a fortnight, hardly longer. Then what? Much depends on what you can see your way to. The traditional “three courses” seem to be before us, each with its advantages and disadvantages; and we are so balanced that we shall be likely to incline as you push the scale....

Course 3. Bear the English winter, if we can’t avoid it, on the principle that “what can’t be cured must be endured.” And with your good fires and snugness it is not so bad. Secure our lodgings, and we will come over to you about the first of the coming month; and I get a solid piece of work done.

If I can utilize the long evenings nothing can be better. Then in March or early April, when England is apt to be raw and rough, but Italy is smiling, we will rush to meet the spring, and return to England when that, too, is delightful and its days long and sunny. Note also, that even an Italian winter may be chilly and damp, and when it is so, there is no seeing galleries and churches without teeth-chattering and cold-taking, and it is not easy to get warm lodgings and decent fires. This course 3 would suit me best of all; for then we, lingering longer than you might be able to take time for, should return to England via Vienna and Berlin, which Mrs. Gray has never seen, and in the latter I have Willdenow’s herbarium to potter over.

Now, my dear old friend, perpend my words (if you can read them; I write on an awkward bit of table), and then have your say.

HÔTEL ST. ROMAIN, November 21, 1880.

The correspondence of late has naturally been conducted by our respective better halves. I have at length (after giving Cosson two or three days to name up his American and Mexican plants) got fairly at work at the Jardin des Plantes, and have found (mainly in the herbarium Jussieu) the originals of several of Lamarck’s asters, which gives me happiness. They take every pains to accommodate and assist one at the herbarium. I see old Decaisne at his house; he is not strong.

I think we shall need two weeks more here, and we hope for better weather than we have yet had. Colds one always takes at Paris, and Mrs. Gray now has her share. It took a long while to be clear of the one presented to me on our arrival here in October. But in the south of Spain my throat was as clear as a whistle. We are not bad just now, and are hopeful.

I was perfectly sincere in writing that I should prefer returning to Kew for two or three months and to reserve Italy for the early spring. I shall get more work out of it so. At the same time I was confident that it would suit you best, and I am glad that you jump at it. It may enable us to get off the fag end (and best part) of Hayden’s report, if ever he sends over the portion in type. I am surprised that it has not before this come to hand.

TO MISS A. A. GRAY.

HÔTEL ST. ROMAIN, PARIS, December 3, 1880.

MY DEAR A.,--I cannot tell you how much I was touched by your letter of the 18th of November, following the round-robin, the letter of Mrs. J. and that of Charley. And what could have possessed my brothers and sisters, and nieces, and “their cousins and your aunts” to club together a contribution on the occasion, as if nobody in the family had ever got to have a seventieth birthday, or ever expected to! Well, it was indeed truly good and thoughtful of you all, and it gratified me beyond measure. As you were the organ of the family, upon the occasion, let me ask you to be the medium for conveying to one and all my acknowledgments and most hearty thanks for their words and deeds and kind thoughts of me at this interesting time.

And now what I am to do with the presents that have poured in, that is, what am I to present to myself in your name, and keep as a souvenir,--that is the question which is exercising my mind. It must be something personal to myself, and I am not much given to personal adornment, and have few personal wants beyond daily food and clothing, of which I always say that “the old is better.” But I have got an idea,--which I will not put on paper yet, because I may change my mind and not carry it out. You shall see in time.

“Aunt J.” and I are having a nice time here in Paris, in spite of the short and dark days. But we have been very, very busy, each in our way, and now and then busy in company, as we have been to-day. And then at evening we come back to our little room, and have the nicest little dinner together in the little _salle-à-manger_ of our little nice hotel; or rarely we go out, but never to fare better; and we have been invited to three dinner parties, each notable and enjoyable in its way. And now I have to-morrow one more day of botanical work, and then we expect to go back on Monday to Kew, and to the lodgings which we occupied a dozen years ago. You can write to your aunty directly there: Mrs. Shepherd’s, “Charlton House,” Kew. Don’t suppose that because it has a name, the house is a grand one. Not a bit of it. But in England, houses, like babies, have names given them when they are little.

Good-by. With dear love to all, along with thanks, I am

Your affectionate ASA GRAY.

TO MESSRS. REDFIELD AND CANBY.

KEW, December 12, 1880.

MY DEAR BRETHREN, REDFIELD AND CANBY,--I think I had a letter from each of you, and that you had some response from me of some sort (and one or two papers, etc., have come from Redfield), but that was so far back in memory when we were staying in Kew before, that it seems to belong to that early phase in my existence when I was living on the other side of the ocean; and that seems as widely distant in time as the ocean is wide in space! It is only by the almanac that we know that we left Cambridge less than three and a half months ago.

I have not done very much for botany in all that time; but Mrs. Gray and I have laid in a stock of health and vigor, corporeally, and have filled our heads with such interesting memories! This and such constant changes of scene have produced the illusion I refer to, through which, as through a haze, I dimly discern last summer. But out of that haze your bright and kindly faces look undimmed.

Did I tell you (I think I did) of the pleasant fortnight here in September, when guests at Hooker’s; when for botany I worked up Oxytropis; when De Candolle and wife were here, and Bentham--serene old man--dined with us almost every day; of our crossing one bright day to Paris, and all that?... Thence, abandoning, from lateness of the season, the plan of returning through Auvergne, we came on quick via Nîmes, Lyons, etc., to Paris.

There Mrs. Gray and I passed three very busy and very charming weeks; also doing some good botanical work, and having a good time with Decaisne and the other botanists at the garden, with Dr. Cosson and M. Lavallée.[115] Then, as the Hookers could not carry out their promise of joining us and going together to Italy now, we agreed to defer that till early spring, and back we came here for work. We are settled in our old lodgings on Kew Green, where we feel quite at home, and are near the Hookers and the herbarium; and here I am to polish off the Asteroideæ,--some very rough surfaces in Aster yet to grind down. We should be pleased to hear from you.

It was at Cordova that I spelled out in Spanish the welcome news that the Republicans had carried the election, and grandly.

And now, with Mrs. Gray’s love joined to mine to your good wives and children, I am

Cordially yours, ASA GRAY.

Dr. Gray settled down at Kew for hard work, but as the days were very short, and of course the herbarium was closed at dusk, he had long evenings. There were many pleasant dinners, among others at Mr. John Ball’s, where he met Robert Browning; and a charming visit to Lord Ducie at Tortworth, where he was much interested in the fine and rare trees, and had an afternoon’s visit to see Berkeley Castle, one of the oldest, if not the oldest, of inhabited castles in England. He paid another interesting visit to Cambridge, to Professor Babington, where he had not been since his visit in 1851, and where among others he met again Dr. Thompson, then Master of Trinity, who had so kindly received him in 1851. Mr. Lowell was then minister to England, and there were pleasant meetings with him.

In early March he crossed to Paris, were he was joined by Sir Joseph and Lady Hooker for a journey by Mt. Cenis to Italy, going as far south as Castellamare and to Amalfi and Pæstum, and returning; short stays in Rome, Florence, and so to Venice, where the party divided, Dr. Gray going to Geneva.

TO A. DE CANDOLLE.

KEW, December 26, 1880.

... I am making slow progress with the Asters. The original types of all the older species I shall certainly make out; but the limitation of the species presents great, if not insuperable difficulties.

I have read nearly all of Darwin’s “Power of Movement in Plants.” It is a veritable research, with the details all recorded; and so it is dull reading. I think it will give the impression to most readers that the terms “geotropism,” “epinasty,” is “hyponasty,” etc., contain more of explanation than in fact they do. Yet now and then a remark should prevent this, as on page 569, and notably on page 545, at the close of the chapter, intimating,--I suppose with reason--that the term “gravity” or “gravitation” is quite misapplied.

I have just taken up Wallace’s “Island Life,” and find the earlier chapters most clear and excellent, but without novelty. The idea of the persistence of continents is most commonplace in America since Dana’s address in (I think) 1845, and I should have thought Wallace would have known of the entire prevalence of that view, at least in the western world.

Rely on me, dear De Candolle, to keep you _au courant_ with all that concerns your friends here, among which always remember your devoted,

ASA GRAY.

TO GEORGE ENGELMANN.

KEW, February 19, 1881.

MY DEAR ENGELMANN,--A few days, or say a week ago, we were gratified by receiving your pleasant letter of the 31st January. I hasten to reply before we get afloat again, when writing becomes precarious. Just now Mrs. Gray and I have our evenings together in our quiet lodgings, that is, whenever we are not dining out or the like, which is pretty often.

You know of our movements, then, up to our return here. The Spanish trip was very pleasant and successful, and the three weeks afterward in Paris both useful and enjoyable. As to botany, it was all given to Aster and Solidago, at the Jardin des Plantes, and at Cosson’s, who has the herbarium of Schultz,[116] Bip., which abounds with pickings from many an herbarium.

We got over here early in December, and here I have worked almost every week day till now, excepting one short visit down to Gloucestershire, and a recent trip to Cambridge, where, however, a good piece of three mornings was devoted to Lindley’s asters. I know the types now of all the older species of North American aster, Linnæan, Lamarckian, Altonian, Willdenovian,[117]--excepting one of Lamarck’s, which I could not trace in the old materials at Paris; and Röper writes me that it is not in herbarium Lamarck. As to Nees’s asters, most of them are plenty, as named by him directly or indirectly. But where, on the dispersion of his herbarium, the Compositæ went to nobody seems to know, though I have tried hard to find out. Have you any idea? But he made horrid work with the asters, and the Gardens all along, from the very first, have made confusion worse confounded. No cultivated specimen, of the older or the present time, is _per se_ of any authority whatever. I am deeply mortified to tell you that, with some little exception, all my botanical work for autumn and winter has been given to Aster (after five or six months at home), and they are not done yet! Never was there so rascally a genus! I know at length what the types of the old species are. But how to settle limits of species, I think I never shall know. There are no characters to go by in the group of Vulgar Asters; the other groups go very well. I give to them one more day; not so much to make up my mind how to treat a set or two, as how to lay them aside, with some memoranda, to try at again on getting home, before beginning to print. The group now left to puzzle me is of Western Pacific Rocky Mountain species. The specimens you have collected for me last summer, when I get them, may help me; or may reduce me to blank despair!

TO A. DE CANDOLLE.

VENICE, May 1, 1881, Sunday.

As we propose to leave Venice to-morrow, I think I may say that within ten days you may look to see us in Geneva. The Hookers, with whom we have journeyed thus far, will proceed more directly home, after a day or two at the Italian lakes. We propose to follow more leisurely, and, if the road is fairly practicable, to cross the Simplon, and so to Geneva, where, according to your suggestion, we will go to the Hôtel des Bergues....

We have now been two months in travel, without respite, and for my part I am fairly sated. I need the change and rest which a week of botanical research in your herbarium, and of intercourse with its owner, will afford me.

We have been as far south as Amalfi and Pæstum. We have attended to the proper sight-seeing of Naples, Rome, Florence, and Venice, and have gained novelty by seeing also Orvieto, Cortona, and Siena, likewise Ravenna. We have escaped a disagreeable spring in England, but at the expense of being everywhere at least a fortnight too early for the various parts of Italy; and I suppose we shall be all the more sensible of this at the lakes and in crossing the Alps. But the weather has never been unfavorable, and we have enjoyed much and worked hard. A week near you in comparative rest will make an agreeable finale. Our companions have added much to the enjoyment, and we are sorry to part with them. They would, I know, send their best regards and remembrances, but at this moment they are both out; but Mrs. Gray, who is writing by my side, desires me to add her own to Madame De Candolle and yourself; and I am always most sincerely yours,

ASA GRAY.

TO J. D. HOOKER.

LUGANO, May 8, 1881.

... Mrs. Gray was able to see little of Padua, beyond the Giotto frescoes and a look into San Antonio, the interior of which looked richer than ever. I kept moving; took a turn in the pleasant old Botanic Garden; found Saccardo;[118] saw two plants of Amorphophallus Rivieri in blossom; was taken up, by Saccardo’s aid, by Dr. Penzig[119] of Breslau, a gentlemanly young fellow, and of good promise, who took me in hand at the garden, university, etc.

HÔTEL ST. ROMAIN, PARIS, May 22, 1881.

If I write you a letter this evening, having nothing else to do till bedtime, mind, you, who have everything to do, are not bound to do more than to read it. Mrs. Gray and Lady Hooker seem to manage correspondence very well, and we may take it easy. But I want to tell you what a pleasant and restful week we had at Geneva. The De Candolles were delightful. He comes in from Vallon every day at ten, and stays till half past four, and I passed much of the time in the herbarium, where I had various old dropped stitches to take up, which I happily accomplished. As to sociabilities, De Candolle had made a dinner party for the very day we arrived (Friday), which I had barely time to get to. I met there Edouard Naville and his wife, the latter new to me, and a Pourtalès, cousin of our Count Pourtalès, who died last summer, and who, as a young man, followed Agassiz to the United States, and was a very important man to Alexander Agassiz. His death was severely felt by all of us. Naville, who is a capital Egyptologist, we knew in Egypt twelve years ago, where he was exploring Edfou and monographing one of its acres of wall sculpture and hieroglyphics, and we met him at De Candolle’s the next summer. We went out last week to his place at Marigny, on the north side of the lake, charmingly placed, with a full-length view of Mont Blanc in front; the lake in the foreground.

Casimir and wife are in England; Lucien off at some baths for rheumatics. But Lucien’s wife was at De Candolle’s, and is a pleasant lady. On Sunday De Candolle sent in his coupé, and took Mrs. Gray and me to dinner en famille at Vallon,--only Madame Lucien and some grandchildren. Vallon is a very pretty place and the house charming. Madame De Candolle is lively, even sprightly in her own house, and, I may as well tell you, is greatly in love with Lady Hooker. We were sent home in the coupé in great style; as also we were on Friday evening last, when De Candolle gave us, for parting, a small dinner party,--Professors Wartmann and Saussure, and the banker Lombard,--Plantamour, the astronomer, being detained by the stars; his wife came, however. All these Genevese speak English well, except Madame De Candolle, who gets off a little, and what with this and their pleasant ways, we were quite at home with them.

Boissier had written to us to come down to Valeyres, but he had expected us earlier. As he was to be off in less than a week, and Mrs. Gray well used up, on reaching Geneva, we declined, and begged him to come to Geneva, which he did on Monday, and stayed well into Tuesday. He took me to his herbarium, which is large and well kept, and I looked up some old things of Lagasca’s, which I could find no trace of at Madrid. Barbey I regretted not to see. He goes with his father-in-law to the Balearic Isles,--goes, indeed, because he is concerned for Boissier’s health, and well he may be.

Argovian Müller I saw something of; busy and happy in the care of the garden, the Delessert herbarium, and the professorship in the new university, built up with the late Duke of Brunswick’s money. The death of his only son was a great blow to him; but he seems cheerful and is very busy. De Candolle is working over Cultivated Plants and their origin....

I see I must go home this autumn, and, indeed, that seems best on almost all accounts. So I should be at Kew soon, and once there I must set myself to work most diligently, and make the most of what time remains.

I hear nothing as yet of Bentham. I hope he is going on well, and the Gramineæ nearly finished, and that he will next take up Liliaceæ....

AIX LA CHAPELLE, June 8, 1881.

... Then we took train on the road down the Moselle (which we had followed from Metz). From Trèves halfway down to Coblentz the country had a decidedly American river look; that is, it constantly reminded one of the Mohawk or the Unadilla,--small rivers of my native State and district, and with just such rounded wooded hills and smooth, well cultivated slopes, and wide stretches of meadow and grain fields. Then came the picturesque portion with precipitous hillsides and crags covered with vines wherever a bit of soil could be found to hold them, extending down to Coblentz. We went on by the railroad down the left bank of the Rhine to Cologne, which we reached late in the afternoon and left at three this P.M.; reached this place at half past four; and while Mrs. Gray rested, I have explored till our half past six dinner hour. Trèves was an interesting place, though it need not detain one long. Cologne we were glad to see again, and were as much interested in its old Romanesque churches as in its cathedral,[120] which certainly is much bettered by the completion of the nave and the west front and towers,--I may say towers and spires,--for they make nearly all the west front. It does not compare with Reims, so far as façade goes....

* * * * *

On reaching Paris in June Dr. Gray met again his old friend Decaisne and many others, and there was much pleasant hospitality at the hands of friends new and old. He especially enjoyed a day at Verrières, seeing, in the old home of M. and Mme. de Vilmorin, the dear friends of thirty years before, the oldest son Henri with his wife and children, the grandchildren of M. and Mme. V. of the corresponding ages and number as the family of young people whom he met in the first visit in 1851.

On returning to Kew, though the time until leaving late in October was busy with steady work, there were pleasant breaks with visits and excursions. He had the pleasure of meeting Dean Stanley, first at the christening of a daughter of Professor Flower’s, and was to have dined with him, but the dinner was postponed on account of a slight indisposition of the Dean, which developed into his fatal illness.

There were many pleasant visits and excursions, some delightful stays in Devonshire and Somersetshire, when pleasant acquaintances were renewed. He spent a few days again at Down with Mr. Darwin, and in August he went to York for the meeting of the British Association. He stayed with Mr. Backhouse, the well-known horticulturist, and saw his wonderful underground caves of ferns, and his successful alpine garden, and enjoyed the social as well as the scientific meetings.

At Kew he was surrounded with friends, renewing the close intimacy with his old and lifelong friend Sir Joseph Hooker; was near his friends at the Deanery at St. Paul’s and at Broom House; and he rested now and then with a day’s sight-seeing. The days passed all too quickly until the time came for breaking up for the return to America. There was a short stay at Oxford, with Sir Henry Acland, most interesting days, and again at Manchester at Professor and Mrs. Williamson’s hospitable home, and then the voyage to America, when he landed early in November.

TO MESSRS. CANBY AND REDFIELD.

KEW, July 15, 1881.

MY DEAR OLD FRIENDS, CANBY AND REDFIELD,--How very long it is since you have heard, at least directly, from your Old World wanderers! How long and from whence, is more than I can tell. I use now an enforced half hour before an engagement, and when it is, would you believe it for England? too hot to go across the Green to use the half hour at the herbarium, where I have sweltered all the morning, regular Philadelphia heat, and this is the third day of this the second heated term.

I wrote you from Italy, I think.

... It is hopeless now to try to give any narration of our doings. The flavor would have all evaporated in the attempt to recall and review the past spring.

I think you know our routes, from Paris in March to Turin, to Genoa, Pisa, Rome, Naples, and the country around, Amalfi and Pæstum our most southern points; then Rome again and a twelve days’ stay, then a run to Orvieto and Cortona on the route to Florence, a visit to Siena from Florence, a detour from Bologna to Ravenna, most old-world of towns, thence to Venice, a week only. And as we left it, the Hookers, whose furlough was running out, dropped us at Padua, whence, passing Verona, where we had been before, we had a day at Brescia, thence to Milan, Como and up the lake, and over to Lugano, and back to Milan. Thence to Arona at foot of Lake Maggiore, and a drive all the way up to Domo d’Ossola, and then diligence over the Simplon pass and through the snow, and down to Brieg, and on to Martigny to sleep, and then on to Geneva, where we passed a delicious week, with De Candolle and other friends to enjoy, and a little botany to attend to in the herbarium. And then in one day we went to Paris, and stayed three weeks, while Mrs. Gray did her feminine matters, and I a deal of botany work, and both a little sight-seeing. Thence, sending our luggage before to London, we swung off for Soissons and the old castle of Coucy, and Reims, and Trèves, and down the Moselle to Coblentz, and the Rhine (that is, by rail) to Cologne, to enjoy the finished cathedral; thence to Aix la Chapelle, to Bruxelles, and then, with a fine day and smooth water, over to England; and here at Kew we have been settled ever since, engaging in a deal of botanical work and a deal of society in a most agreeable way, and a little (thus far only a little) sight-seeing. As we come towards the end, we grow busier every day, and count the time closer. For we expect to return in October, to reach home (_Deo favente_) either at the end of that month or before the middle of November; the day and vessel not yet quite fixed....

There are lots of things to write about, but the sheet is full, and I must only say I am

Yours affectionately, ASA GRAY.

TO R. W. CHURCH.

RICHMOND HOUSE, KEW.

... It is really serious, this leaving England, and choice friends in it, when one considers that, whatever I may fondly say, I cannot expect to see it again,--I do not say _them_.

Affectionately yours, ASA GRAY.

CAMBRIDGE, MASS., November 14, 1881.

MY DEAR FRIEND,--Dr. Holmes is a good soul, and has just sent me the inclosed for the autograph which I promised H. I wish she, and especially that M., could be here now, to enjoy our exquisite dry and stimulating air, which, with American oysters, should set her up completely.

I have missed Freeman. He had gout and some other engagements, which took him from Boston the day before we landed. My critical friends at Cambridge say that his lectures were disappointing. They say he took no pains in preparation, or at least fell into the common habit of your countrymen when they come here, that is, of giving lectures and water. The Bostonians prefer, and appreciate, something more concentrated and higher proof.

I do hope you will promise Mr. Lowell a course of lectures, few or more, next October.

The foundation of the Lowell lectures requires that courses shall be delivered, as often as possible, on subjects pertaining to Christianity, natural religion, etc., which may come as near to sermons as you like. Pray do not decline the invitation offhand. You would have a most appreciative audience. You see we are counting upon you, with two daughters at least, for the next summer and autumn. In haste to save the post,

Affectionately yours, ASA GRAY.

TO GEORGE ENGELMANN.

CAMBRIDGE, December 13, 1881.

MY DEAR OLD FRIEND,--It is shabby of me to wait so long in response to your kindly greetings, which were dated on my birthday, November 18. But I was very busy when it came, and hardly less so since, and so I let it get out of sight.

Well, here we are once more, leaving dear friends on the other side, and now among our own kith and kin.

Glad to hear of your pleasant summer, and pretty good health now.

We had a favorable voyage home, which is more than those just before could say, and far more than any since....

Nees’s asters, of his own herbarium, I can nowhere find or hear of. But I don’t believe his herbarium (which was sold piecemeal) would have helped me much, considering how he has named asters for other herbaria....

Accumulated collections, of Lemmon, Parish,[121] Cusick,[122] etc., especially have taken all my time up to now, after getting my home in order, a deal of trouble. And now I can think of getting at my “Flora” work again.

First of all, I am to make complete as I can my manuscript for Solidago and Aster. Solidago I always find rather hopeful. Aster, as to the _Asteres genuini_, is my utter despair! Still I can work my way through except for the Rocky Mountain Pacific species.

I will try them once more, though I see not how to limit species, and to describe specimens is endless and hopeless. So send on your things. But first I am to print, _pari passu_ with my final elaboration, an article, “Studies in Solidago and Aster,”--taking the former first, giving an account of what I have made out in the old herbaria, stating investigations which I can only give the condensed result of in the “Flora,” etc. Considerable change as to some old species.

When I have done the Solidago, then Aster in that way....

TO A. DE CANDOLLE.

CAMBRIDGE, December 29, 1881.

I am doubtful if I have written to you since our return, and my New Year greetings will reach you somewhat late, but are very hearty. I could hardly have neglected to send you word of the satisfaction with which we look upon the fine bust of your father, which stands at one end of our herbarium; Robert Brown and William J. Hooker at the other, and your lithographic portrait overhead is replaced by the more striking photograph you gave us.

At length we are settled in our home; have had for the twenty-fifth time the annual Christmas family gathering, for which my study, being the largest room in the house, is always upturned and emptied, and I should be quietly at work upon the Compositæ, were it not for an attack of lumbago, that uncomfortable attendant of old age, which just now interferes with my activity, without actually laying me up.... We, Mr. Watson and I, are still much occupied with the distribution, and therefore in good part the study, of the recent collections which have accumulated here and are still coming in. Much valuable time do they consume. The most interesting are from Arizona, etc., near the Mexican frontier, among which those we have most to do with are by Lemmon and by Pringle.[123] The former, I know,--and I shall soon know as to the latter,--has sets to dispose of, and I think you would like to have them. We formerly have taken a deal of trouble in assisting such collectors in the disposal of their plants offered for sale, but we are obliged now to leave aside such affairs, as they consume too much time.

I have no other botanical news for you. Dr. Engelmann, who of late has roamed a good deal, is now at home, and busy with botanical work, of various sorts, Isoetes, Cupressus, etc. It is quite probable that he will cross the ocean again next spring, in which case you will probably see him. Professor Sargent is busy with his forest reports in connection with the United States Census of 1880. Mr. Watson in this service made a long journey through our northwest region, while I was in Europe, at too late a season for much ordinary botany; and he has been otherwise too busy since his return even to look over his collections.

My colleague, Professor Goodale, giving over to Professor Farlow the university lectures, etc., is now abroad with his whole family, to recruit health and acquire information. You will see him at Geneva in spring or summer, and I commend him to you as a dear friend and a very valuable man. My wife joins me in kind remembrances and best New Year wishes to Madame De Candolle and yourself, and I am always your devoted

ASA GRAY.

TO J. D. HOOKER.

CAMBRIDGE, December 25, 1881.

... I am kept indoors this pleasant Christmas Sunday, which is here as fine and bright a day as was the Christmas of last year, which we passed with you, and which comes up fresh to our memories....

I have just cleared off the portion of accessions to herbarium which had accumulated here and which I had myself to see to, and am settling down to my Compositous work. And now I am taking an oath that when I do get about them I will hold on to the bitter end, that is, I suppose till I reach the Wormwoods. And now I must go to Washington on the 18th prox. for meeting of Smithsonian regents....

Sargent has got his arboretum at length on to the hands of the city of Boston to make the roads for, to repair and to light and police. He seems to have made a mark in his Census forestry work. He has developed not only a power of doing work, but of getting work done for him by other people, and so can accomplish something.

January 27, 1882.

... My whole soul is in the “Flora of North America,” but the new things that come in, owing to opening of Arizona and other railways, and which have to be seen to, keep Watson and myself so busy. So our movement is like marking time four days to going ahead one....

Engelmann promises to make us a visit in the spring. How I shall make him work! No other news just now.

TO SIR EDWARD FRY.

CAMBRIDGE, February 26, 1882.

MY DEAR SIR EDWARD,--It is high time that I thanked you for a very pleasant letter which at the beginning of the year you kindly wrote me from Failand House, a place which is very green in our memories. It reached us at Washington, where, with Mrs. Gray as my inseparable companion, I went to attend the annual meeting of the regents of the Smithsonian Institution. We were away from home little more than a week, and even in that time we managed to bring in a little visit to friends in Philadelphia.

This miserable trial of Guiteau, of which you already knew unpleasant particulars, was still in progress; but I did not go near the court-room, and could not readily have been induced to do so. The day after I received your letter I met an acquaintance, one of the judges of the Court of Claims (a court for trying claims against the United States government preferred by citizens or others, and much is it to be wished that a mass of claims presented to Congress and cumbering its committees could be passed over to this court), and I drew him into conversation upon the scandal which the trial was causing. He spoke of Judge Cox as a man of ability and high character, referred to the impossibility of shutting the prisoner’s mouth, the expectation that the man’s prolonged revelation of himself before the jury would throw more light upon the case than any amount of expert testimony, which I think was expected to be more contradictory than it actually was, and of the determination to leave no ground for the ordering of a new trial. My friend told me he had been twice in the courtroom, thought the judge might and should have exercised more control, yet that what he saw and heard did not appear to him at the time so indecorous and offensive as it appeared when presented in the newspapers. Indeed, this sensational newspaper reporting is a huge nuisance, and in respect to these matters our highest-class daily papers are little better than the lowest. I suppose the telegraph reporting for the press is all done by one set of men, and the more sensational the reports the more welcome to the papers, which, with few exceptions, print without any selection or discrimination.

I have settled down to my work with enjoyment, but with a growing sense of discouragement growing out of an _embarras de richesses_. It was natural to find here a great accumulation of collections of North American plants, all needing examination; but unfortunately, they continue to come in faster than I can study and dispose of them. This comes from the increasing number of botanical explorers, and the new facilities offered to them by new railroads along our southwestern frontiers and other out-of-the-way regions. The consequence is, that while new and interesting things are pouring in, which one must attend to, and which are very enjoyable, I do not get ahead with the steady and formidable work of the “North American Flora.” I begin to think it were a happier lot to have the comparatively completed botany of an old country to study, in which your work “were done when ’twere done,” and in which, even if it were not done quickly, you were not called on to do it over and over, to bring the new into shape and symmetry with the old.

By the way, I finally wrote out an article on a question which you once treated, and upon which we more than once conversed, taking for my text a paragraph in Lubbock’s address at York last summer. I had partly promised Mr. Walter Browne to write it, so I sent it to him; and as a proof from the “Contemporary Review” has come back to me, I suppose it may be printed before long.[124] I shall be curious to know what you think of it.

I sent you a portion of a New York religious newspaper containing a sort of review of two books with which I beguiled the voyage last October or November. It is of no great consequence. But I sometimes write such reviews or articles to papers of this kind, which are endeavoring to do their best in bridging over the gap between the thoughts of a former generation, or of our younger days, and of the present day. I believe such articles are now and then helpful.

You supposed that I had seen the “Lyell’s Life and Letters” sooner than I had. To my surprise the volumes are not reprinted in America; and I have only just succeeded in procuring a copy from England.

I have read a good deal of it, and with much interest. The allusion to me, which you referred to, was of course very pleasant. The last chapter of the “Antiquity of Man” had apprised me (for I never had any direct correspondence with Lyell) that we thought much alike on such matters; and we are apt to approve views which agree with our own. I always thought Lyell a very level-headed man,--one with a very judicial turn of mind; and his letters and journal bring this out well, as they do the whole life and the charming character of the man. It is interesting to see how early he took the line which he followed in his whole life’s work, and which has changed the face of geology and philosophical natural history. For, indeed, Lyell is as much the father of the new mode of thought which now prevails as is Darwin. I have said a word about this, which I will try to send you.

That is a noble letter to Mr. Spedding, about the American war. We knew that was in him. During the time of trouble, our then minister in London, Mr. Adams, and Mrs. Adams used to say that Sir Charles and Lady Lyell were almost their only, and their very stanch and efficient supporters.

If you happen to know who the author of “The New Analogy,” by Cellarius, is, I beg you will let me know. Although as a whole it may not amount to much, there are some capital hits in it.

I have been writing you a monstrously long letter. I have only space to ask you to give my kind remembrances to Lady Fry and the young people, of all whom we have such happy memories.

TO A. DE CANDOLLE.

March 16, 1882.

... Your letter of the 25th of February tells me of the will of dear Decaisne, whom we shall miss greatly. The main disadvantage of our years is in these losses, which to us are never made up. He was a very true friend....

I am glad you will make a supplement to the “Lois.” When you have it in hand I wish you would communicate to me, in letter, your main points on the critical questions. You, Bentham, and I are most in accord; and we ought to agree, essentially. Upon any critical points, I had much rather make my comments, for whatever they may be worth, before you print than afterwards. I have kept phænogamous botany essentially orthodox in the United States....

May 15.

... It is now all but a year since Mrs. Gray and I had that charming week at Geneva!

Much has happened since then. We have lost dear old Decaisne; and now Darwin! We hardly should have thought, twenty-five years ago, that he would have made such an impression upon the great world, as well as on the scientific world!

I do not know if you ever saw much of him. He was a very charming man.

Here we have lost, at a good age, both Longfellow and Emerson.

I have been anxious about Bentham, from whom there were discouraging accounts; but his last letters are hopeful, and he is steadily at work. Let me hope, and let me know, that you are quite well; also Madame De Candolle.

TO J. D. HOOKER.

CAMBRIDGE, September 17, 1882.

... At Montreal we were guests of Dawson, who wanted to return some hospitality we had afforded him and his daughter.... Dawson has toiled for a lifetime at Montreal, under many discouragements, has accomplished a deal, and deserves great credit.

... We had a pleasant time, and this fortnight in Canada was my only vacation. I went to visit the grave of Pursh, who died at forty-six. They have put his bones in their pretty cemetery, and put a neat stone over them....

Glad you are to send me scraps of one or more species of Dyer. It should have been a tinctorial genus....

TO R. W. CHURCH.

October 8, 1882.

It is probable that I have not responded by a line to your letter of April 13, yet I think my wife has written more than once to the Deanery, and we have had good accounts of the visit to Italy, which appears to have been a great enjoyment to all of you. And now we have the news of H.’s engagement, which must give you a novel sensation. How time flies and events develop! It seems but a little while since she and her sisters were little girls at Whatley. And now, when this reaches you, a year will have gone round since we said goodby in London.

I have not much to say nor to show for this year. Though I have never worked more steadily, and never with so much concentration, there seems to be little to show for it. At times I am disheartened, but a hope as irrepressible as I suppose it is unreasonable and extravagant bears me up and on. There is, indeed, a good pile of manuscript to show, but I will not begin printing until I have gone through with the vast order of Compositæ. That may be at Christmas,--I may say I expect it,--but I never yet came up to any such expectation. To give you some idea of what my task is, I hope to send you soon a copy of an exhortation which I read to the botanists at the recent meeting of our American Association for Advancement of Science at Montreal (in the Queen’s dominions!) This journey to Canada was my only holiday this past summer; though Mrs. Gray got as much more, with her brothers and sisters at Beverly, on the coast; a bit of country and of country life we are longing to have you see.

The gathering at Montreal was most pleasant, and we were happily placed as the guests of the president of the year, Dr. Dawson, principal of McGill College, at which the sessions were held. Among the foreign savants, we had ... Rev. and also M. D. Professor Haughton, of Trinity College, Dublin, a man of very varied knowledge, ... a somewhat rollicking companion, which, however, did not hinder his preaching a goodly and serious sermon in the Cathedral on Sunday; I believe rather eminent in mathematics, and who has done a good piece of physico-physiological work on muscular power. But what took me by surprise was his intense, truly Irish hatred of England, and of Gladstone in particular. Probably he did not like the disestablishment of the Irish church.

And as to Ireland,--what a year you have had, and only dim hopes that the next will be better; I do hope Gladstone will hold on and hold out. The Egyptian affair, as it turns out, must strengthen his administration not a little. Ever since we were in Egypt, I have been longing to have England take the control of that country, as the only hope of the fellahs and Copts,--the only people there for whom one has any sympathy.

I was to write you about the great brimming St. Lawrence, and of our trip down it to the Saguenay. But Mrs. Gray will be writing all that, and also giving my hearty good wishes to H., dear soul. But I have not left room even to say how sincerely I remain,

Yours affectionately and truly, ASA GRAY.

December 11.

You ought to have heard from me before this, but you have probably got information indirectly of my little mishap, which may account for not writing with my own hand. Not a quite sufficient excuse; for at much inconvenience I managed very soon to do some writing, in awkward fashion, as well as to turn over specimens; otherwise I should have been unhappy.

Well, hard upon six weeks ago, I managed to break the top of my right shoulder-blade. It was done by a bit of carelessness, not to say foolhardiness, by continuing to do at seventy-two what I have done in former years, relying too much on my quickness and sureness of foot in stepping off a horse-car (_anglice_, tram) when in motion. In the darkness I supposed it had slowed up, which in fact it had not, and so a bad fall. Well, the bone is thought to be well mended, and I use the arm for certain purposes almost as well as ever, but cannot yet get my clothes on and off without assistance. My wife, as you will believe, has been a capital nurse, and she credits me with a most unexpected amount of patience....

But if you don’t come soon I shall despair of you. And Gladstone, I know, will be tempting you; but I doubt if you will budge, except he would place you in more sunny quarters than the Deanery,--a place which corporeally I know is not at all good for you, nor for Mrs. Church.

I read that you have preached a sermon in commemoration of Dr. Pusey, at Oxford, which I hope you will print, and I count on receiving a copy. I prize very much a copy of a discourse by Dr. Pusey, given me through Acland when we were there a year and a quarter ago, addressed to me in a very flattering way.

By the telegraph we learn you are having a very severe snowstorm, attended with suffering. We are now having our sixth of this winter; but we do not mind it.

I rejoice with you at Gladstone’s success. He and Dufferin have earned laurels. Let us hope he will hold out several years yet, and continue at the helm. But how cordially he is hated!

Here we get on, prosper, indeed, quite without wisdom, or with very little of it. One of these days we shall need it. There are things I should like to write about. But my arm is not up to continued use.

Mrs. Gray will send messages _propria manu_. So, with my kindest regards to Mrs. Church and all your happy family, I am affectionately,

Yours, ASA GRAY.

TO SIR EDWARD FRY.

BEVERLY FARMS, December 1, 1882.

We were very sorry to read in the telegraphic news a few days ago of the destruction of Clevedon Court by fire, a most sad and unexpected thing, but we hope not so bad as the brief announcement portends. It brought back to our memory the delightful afternoon which Mrs. Gray and I passed there a year and some months ago. A modern house can be replaced, but not an old hall like this. It makes us sad to think of it. Perhaps you can tell us that the loss was exaggerated in the telegraphic account.

I am writing from the house of Mrs. Gray’s brother, on the seashore, where we are passing the “Thanksgiving” holiday. “Thanksgiving Day” is a Puritan institution, was formerly confined to New England and the districts settled by New Englanders, and has been kept from the time of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and is annually appointed by the governors of these States by proclamation. But within the last fifteen or twenty years it has become national, and the day, the fourth or the last Thursday in November, is announced by a proclamation by the President. In New England it long took the place of Christmas, for which you know the Puritans had no liking, and was the chief family gathering-day as well as a day of religious service, or at least of political sermonizing. But Christmas is completely restored even in New England, though the other holiday is not dropped.

The north shore of Massachusetts Bay is very pretty, the shore backed with woods and rocks, and sheltered against the northeast bleak winds; and the situation where we are is one of the choicest. It is near the mouth of Salem Bay, Salem at the head, three or four miles above, and the hills beyond close the view at the west; the peninsula of Marblehead lies opposite on the south, dividing this water from that of Boston Bay; southeast the sea-line is broken only by three or four low islands. When my good father-in-law bought the land here, then waste wood and sheep-pasture, forty years and more ago, it was two or three hours from Boston. Now a railway brings it within an hour, and now the whole coast down to Cape Ann is occupied with what you would call villa residences, the grounds of all the most desirable ones reaching to the water, partly with rocky shores wooded with pine-trees and junipers, partly with sandy beaches, good for bathing-grounds. This place combines the two, and is well wooded at the back, and commands the most beautiful views. Most of the houses are used only for summer residences; but this is occupied the year round. I have never been here in the winter before. Winter we are here in the midst of already, unusually early, and the ground is white with snow, of which there is usually little before Christmas. But our winter differs from yours in its sunshine, the brilliancy and cheer of which is a good offset for the colder weather, or at least the lower thermometer.

A good number of our English acquaintances have been over this autumn. Dr. and Mrs. Carpenter are among the last to return. He has just closed a popular course of Lowell lectures, and they go back a week or two hence. One hardly knows what brought Herbert Spencer. He seems most to have enjoyed Niagara, where he stayed a week. I do not think the dinner demonstration for him at New York amounted to very much; nor do I take stock in the statement, the truth of which he took for granted, that the hair turns gray in the United States ten years earlier than in England. I should say the only difference is, that there is more hair remaining here to turn gray at middle age or later. Spencer also told us of a discovery he had made, that all Americans had the outer corners of their eyes lower than the inner, the opposite of our antipodes, the Mongols.

I have just returned from a “sleigh ride.” Snow, though a nuisance in towns, is a convenience in the country, greatly facilitating travel, and a drive upon runners instead of wheels, well wrapped in furs and with buffalo robes, is much enjoyed.

At the end of August, Mrs. Gray and I went to Montreal, to the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, where we were guests of the president, Dr. Dawson. We made an excursion to Ottawa, the new seat of government, and another down the noble St. Lawrence and up its picturesque tributary, the Saguenay. Otherwise we have been at home all the summer and autumn. And so we expect to be all winter, save perhaps a week in Washington.

... I think I have long owed your son Portsmouth a letter, but, though I should be glad to hear from him, and to know how he is getting on at Oxford, I cannot pay my debt to him to-day. And some twinges tell me that it is time to spare you.

I will just add that what we hear prepares us to expect that before this reaches you, or even leaves this country, we may hear that the good and wise Archbishop of Canterbury will have gone to his rest; and Gladstone will have a most responsible as well as the most dignified position to fill.

TO GEORGE BENTHAM.

CAMBRIDGE, December 17, 1882.

I must not let the New Year come to you without repairing my delay in the way of letter-writing, and sending you greeting and good wishes for the season. Especially I may congratulate you and felicitate ourselves, that is, we botanists, that you have, or will have, brought your _opus magnum_ to a completion!--proof-reading excepted. A great thing to have done. I did not make reply to your last of October 14, because I really could say nothing about the Eriocauloneæ....

Yes, I have De Candolle on Cultivated Plants, and am well pleased with it, so far as I have looked it over.

Thanks for your complimentary mention of my notice of Darwin. I have since sent you another brochure, an exhortation to my botanical compatriots to have more consideration for my time, considering how little is left, and what a deal of use I have for it. I can hope only to palliate the evil a little.

Your life has been a most enviable one, in being able so to arrange and control your time, and with your indomitable industry, perseverance, and judgment, you have turned your opportunities to full account, winning no end of gratitude and admiration. Now, do take the relaxation and repose which you have so completely earned; and take, as you may, great satisfaction and pride in all you have accomplished. At least your many friends will do so....

I did hope to have got to the end of the Compositæ with the end of 1882; but I shall hardly do more than finish the Helenioideæ. As I go on, I study all Mexican border things, at least these of our North American collectors.

My health is excellent; so I may fairly hope to get the North American Compositæ off my hands and in print, barring accidents, and I shall be careful of my bones, and other contingencies....

TO J. D. HOOKER.

May 1, 1883.

... I have not read Carlyle’s Life, by Froude, but many articles, in which of course the points are mostly given. All seem to agree that Froude has blackened the memory of Carlyle irrecoverably, or rather with rude hand wiped off the whitewash which covered the blackness. He was a rude, unkempt soul. From the extracts I have seen, I fancy that Mrs. Carlyle’s letters beat Carlyle’s all out for raciness and pith.

I am content with the Romane correspondence as R. leaves it, and pleased with Romane’s tone, which I will try to tell him.

I think his first reply was a “beating of the air.” And for that reason I returned to the charge. His second is to the purpose. And he seems to feel that mine was to the purpose also.

... As to dear Bentham, his life is the very ideal of a naturalist’s life, and I have always regarded it one of the happiest possible and one of the most successful.... His administration of the Linnæan, his series of addresses, etc., will be looked back to as an oasis in the desert.

Our spring is late; the winter, or rather the drought of the previous autumn, has been deadly on perennials, herbs and shrubs....

TO R. W. CHURCH.

May 22, 1883.

... I wish to condole with you over a hardship which you write of, that of having to write a book on Lord Bacon. I quite understand that you should bemoan your fate at being drawn into that undertaking. I cannot think it at all to your liking. Bacon, of all people, if the best is to be made of him, I fancy, should be written of by a worldly-wise, if not a worldly-minded man. Moreover, I must confess to a heretical opinion as to another side of Bacon, that in which English, and all English-speaking, people glory. To blab it out: I have an ugly notion that he was rather a sciologist than a man of science, and that he really did nothing of real consequence for the furtherance of science; nothing to be compared with Galileo, a real father of “inductive philosophy” and scientific investigation--and Pascal. By the way, taking the two men all round, do you not think a taking parallel could be run with Bacon and Pascal?

Now, to change the subject,--what a noble old man Gladstone is, and what a great name he is going to leave as a high-minded statesman! I could envy you, if it were in my way, the privilege of his friendship.

H. was so good as to write me a charming letter from her new home, for which please give her my thanks.

By the way, if you see our observatory director, Pickering, you will find him an unaffected man, wise in science above his years.

TO J. D. HOOKER.

CAMBRIDGE, September 3, 1883.

MY DEAR HOOKER,--A letter of yours of July 24 has been on my table a good while, and now to-day comes yours of August 22. So I am to write you at once, urged thereto mainly by your quandary about subspecies, varieties, and how to manage them in a popular flora like the British, in which forms need to be distinguished more than in outlandish floras.

I have a decided opinion as to the form of treatment, and from your letter, as well as I can gather, I coincide with Ball. At least, I would not have subspecies. They are, as the saying goes, “neither flesh, fowl, nor good red herring.”

Some you would accept as species; make of the rest varieties, with names.

In characterizing species having marked varieties, should the specific character comprehend the forms or varieties, and then there be a “var. a” or type, or “typical form?”

I thought over this when I began my “Synoptical Flora,” and concluded that it was best to characterize the species on its genuine representatives only. Of course as far as practicable, and indeed for all but some special points, the characters will, and should, cover the whole. And at the end of the character, you have only to add, the type of the species has so and so; then the variety or varieties with the special differentia.

From pretty large practice I find this works best, and probably your experience will have brought you to the same conclusion....

“Liberavi animum meum,” and it may go for what you find it worth.... I did not know that “Americans,” i. e., good Americans, did say, “so and so intermarried with so and so.” I see Ravenel, a Carolinian, says so.

TO GEORGE BENTHAM.

CAMBRIDGE, September 25, 1883.

MY DEAR BENTHAM,--I am so glad to receive a letter giving so comfortable an account of yourself; glad also that you would like to hear from me; glad to announce that, though there are still some genera to revise, I can tell you that I am about to begin the printing of the “Synoptical Flora,” containing Caprifoliaceæ-Compositæ,--which when done, I shall feel something of the relief you must have had when the “Genera” was off your hands. That done, I look, with only that mitigated confidence that becomes an old man, for a bit of holiday, such as is always reinvigorating to Mrs. Gray and myself. I am so sorry you had to take up with a sick-room instead. But as you are now picking up finely, could you not be made comfortable and get rid of an English November and December by revisiting the scenes of your youth in the south of France?...

I think I sent you Trumbull’s[125] (mostly) and my annotations on De Candolle’s “L’Origine des Plantes Cultivées.” If not, let me know, for you have leisure to read now.

I am busy with an article on De Candolle’s “Nouvelles Remarques sur la Nomenclature.” As it may be my last say on the subject, I am going to make a rather elaborate article on nomenclatural and phytographical points, mostly small points, some of which I should have liked to confer with you about. I would have done so, but I feared, in the reported state of your health, to trouble you.

There are two or three small points, about name-citation and name-making, upon which I shall venture to criticise the “Genera Plantarum.” But in almost everything we are in full accord, as you know, and I wish to impress the accordance upon the younger botanists of the United States. Nowadays, more than formerly, they get hold of many books, German and other--books, many of them, better for substance than for form; and so our botanists need guidance and some show of authority.

Engelmann has come home, looking far better than we expected, or than he thought to be; is visiting Sargent, and will soon come to us....

TO SIR EDWARD FRY.

November 10, 1883.

In a line which I remember adding to Mrs. Gray’s last letter to Lady Fry I expressed a hope and confident expectation that we should have done with General Butler as governor of Massachusetts. The election occurred last Tuesday; an extraordinarily large vote was cast: Butler was defeated by 10,000, and an excellent man, a member of Congress from the central part of the State, a lawyer, who makes considerable sacrifice in taking the governorship, is chosen in his place, and there is a majority of two thirds in both branches of the legislature to support him. We hope that this makes an end of Butler’s power for harm, or at least cripples it. He is a desperate demagogue....

I doubt if either of the friends you mentioned came to Cambridge at all. My friend Agassiz had the pleasure of meeting them at Newport, and was greatly taken with them....

I am beginning to print the Compositæ for my “Flora of North America;” and am revising for the last time some of the more difficult and more unsatisfactory portions. My wife now excuses me to her friends for outbreaks of ill-humor, the excuse being that I am at present “in the valley of the shadow of the Asters.” This is “sic itur ad astra,” with a vengeance. If only I can have done with the printer by the close of the winter months, with any life left in me, then we will go in for a holiday.

I am very well, and Mrs. Gray passably so. We have seen just a little of Matthew Arnold, with wife and daughter; shall probably see more of them.

TO R. W. CHURCH.

November 12, 1883.

... I have just seen the first proof of the portion of “Flora of North America” that I have been moiling over for so long; and over them and the ever-renewed touches to the ever-growing Compositæ, I may expect a toilsome winter. That done, I hope about the time that the clear and biting, but rather enjoyable, winter subsides into the inclemencies of our early spring, we hope, if we live and thrive, to take a holiday. Just how and where is not yet clear, but I hope to have something to say of it before I am done with this letter. Meanwhile I am curious to know if you have disposed of Bacon. If your essay pleases me as much as your remarks in your letter to me, I shall enjoy it. I recant all I wrote you long ago, begging you would drop him and take up a more congenial subject....

I am just back this evening from hearing Matthew Arnold read some of his poems to a great hallful of undergraduates and others, in place of a lecture which he was to give, but, poor man! was prevented by his agent, who seems to be rather his master. He was well received; but one cannot say that he is a very graceful or a good reader to an audience of eight hundred or a thousand people.

He tells me you offered him an introduction to me, which he thought he hardly needed, as we had met him and Mrs. Arnold at a lunch given by Miss North. We are sorry to hear of the determining reason of his visit and lecturing tour.... He will succeed in this, no doubt; but it is a sort of dog’s life, this lecturing all over the country, four times a week, at the beck of an agent, who controls all his movements, often to audiences that will not appreciate him, the more as what he tells me is true, that he has no gift as a speaker. But he is pleasant, and will be most kindly received.

Your Lord Chief Justice was most kindly cared for and made a most pleasant impression. But in Boston, besides coming when every one was away who should have attended to him, he fell, unwisely, into the hands of ... Governor Butler, and saw a side of American life and manners which may be well enough for him to see, though we should desire the contrary, and will add to his rich repertory of stories, which they say he can tell so well. The day he was shown over our university he called here, and took a cup of tea with us. He had recently been visiting our good friend Lord Justice Fry at Failand, and spoke of Lord Blachford as his friend and neighbor....

March 31, 1884.

... I have, moreover, another reason for sending you this line, to thank you for the proof-sheets of the “Bacon.” I read it at a sitting, one day when I was too ill for my daily task. I enjoyed the book greatly, all the more, probably, from my freshness, not having read anything upon the subject that I now recall since Macaulay’s essay, ages ago. It is like reading a tragedy.

What a great failure Bacon was, whenever he was tried! Poor Essex, hunted to death merely for “getting up a row,” and Bacon sacrificing him without compunction, and without seeing that he was probably made a tool of, merely to serve his personal advantage! Then the poetical justice, as they call it,--very prosaic justice,--of his own destruction, by a bolt out of a clear sky, which an enemy was adroit enough to direct to his ruin. And poor Bacon with conscience enough to feel that he deserved it, but not spirit enough to make a fight. No, if Pope’s fling was undeserved, as you say, it was because of the mean and ignoble set around him.

Almost as pitiable and tragic in its way, pitiable in its true sense, was the upshot of Bacon’s higher and nobler life, conceiving vaguely and laboring all his days over that which he was unable and incompetent to bring to the birth. His memory reaping a great reward of fame for a century or so, and then the conclusion reluctantly reached that nothing tangible in the advancement of Natural Science can be attributed to him. Altogether, what a solemn sermon! It might be preached from the pulpit of St. Paul’s.

Well, I seem to have attempted sermonizing myself, and it is time I stopped.

We join in the thanksgivings you are devoutly rendering,[126] and I am always,

Yours affectionately, ASA GRAY.

As this is the last letter from Dr. Gray to Dean Church, to be printed, the occasion is taken to introduce a letter written by Dean Church to Mrs. Gray some time after the death of his friend, when acknowledging the receipt of a copy of the “Scientific Papers.”

DEAN CHURCH TO MRS. GRAY.

I have to thank you for two volumes of most interesting reading. Besides the interest of the subject discussed, there is a special _cachet_ in all Dr. Gray’s papers, great and small, which is his own, and which seems to me to distinguish him from even his more famous contemporaries. There is the scientific spirit in it, but firm, imaginative, fearless, cautious, with large horizons, and very attentive and careful to objections and qualifications; and there is besides, what is so often wanting in scientific writing, the human spirit, always remembering that, besides facts and laws, however wonderful or minute, there are souls and characters over against them, of as great account as they, in whose mirrors they are reflected, whom they excite and delight, and without whose interest they would be blanks. This combination comes out in his great generalizations, in the bold and yet considerate way in which he deals with Darwin’s ideas, and in the notices of so many of his scientific friends, whom we feel that he was interested in as men, and not only as scientific inquirers. The sweetness and charity, which we remember so well in living converse, is always on the lookout for some pleasant feature in the people of whom he writes, and to give kindliness and equity to his judgment.

And what a life of labors it was! I am perfectly aghast at the amount of grinding work of which these papers are the indirect evidence....

For they [his religious views] were a most characteristic part of the man, and the seriousness and earnest conviction with which he let them be known had, I am convinced, a most wholesome effect on the development of the great scientific theory in which he was so much interested. It took off a great deal of the theological edge, which was its danger, both to those who upheld and those who opposed it. I am sure things would have gone more crossly and unreasonably, if his combination of fearless religion and clearness of mind, and wise love of truth, had not told on the controversy.

TO J. D. HOOKER.

CAMBRIDGE, June 9, 1884.

Your last is of May 24th from the Camp, and gives us on the whole better accounts of your invalids. Bentham at Boultibrooke! I wonder if he would care to have letters from me, or from Mrs. Gray, to whom he wrote a treasure of a note on the New Year. We had an idea it might only worry him....

I wish we could see you at the Camp and among the heather, and I wish I could form a clear conception of just how you are placed, taking the Rotherys’ house as a point of departure.

We give you up as to America this year. I would not have you and Lady Hooker just run over here for a call; it would be too provoking. Well, let us plan for January or February next, and Mexico, Arizona, and southern California.

“Man never is, but always to be blest.”

The Joad herbarium was a real bonanza....

I must tell of our two weeks’ run, Mrs. Gray and I. We left the too tardy spring here, one evening; were the next noon in Washington, where the spring was in full force and beauty. After two days, left Washington one morning, followed up the Potomac River to its very rise in the Alleghanies, and down on to Mississippi waters before dark; woke near Cincinnati, had a pleasant day’s journey to St. Louis, which we reached before sunset. There had five days, rather busy ones; thence a journey of thirty-six hours, over prairies of Illinois and Indiana to Buffalo, and to New York city; there two days, and then home.[127] Mrs. Gray, thus away from household cares and a rough air, dropped her cough altogether; and what you would think a tiresome piece of journeying brought us both home much refreshed....

You remember Henry Shaw, his park and Missouri botanic garden. The old fellow is now eighty-four. Something induced him to ask my advice, and to let me know the very ample fortune with which he is to endow the garden, when he dies. I was in doubt whether all this was likely to be quite wasted, or was in condition to be turned to good account for botany and horticulture when Mr. Shaw leaves it and his trust comes to be executed. I wished also to see that dear old Engelmann’s herbarium should be properly and permanently preserved. So I went on to St. Louis. Mr. Shaw took me into his counsel and, without going here into details, without seeing a chance for doing much while Mr. Shaw lives, which cannot be very long, I see there is a grand opportunity coming, and I think that none of the provisions he has made will hinder the right development of the Mississippian Kew, which will hardly be “Kew in a corner.” And if he follows my advice and mends some matters, there will be a grand foundation laid.

We are expecting Ball toward the end of the month. He will have time to travel and botanize before the Montreal meeting. But I can’t go with him, nor, perhaps, could I much help him....

* * * * *

Dr. Gray’s friend of many years, George Engelmann, M. D., died in February, 1884. He was a student at Heidelberg with Schimper and Alexander Braun in 1827, and again in Paris, in 1832, with Agassiz and Braun. He came to America in 1834, made some journeys on horseback in the West, and settled as a physician in St. Louis, then a frontier trading-post, in 1835. He lived to see it become a metropolis of over four hundred thousand inhabitants. Dr. Gray says in his memoirs of him, “In the consideration of Dr. Engelmann’s botanical work it should be remembered that his life was that of an eminent and trusted physician; ... that he devoted only the residual hours, which most men use for rest or recreation, to scientific pursuits.... Nothing escaped his attention; he drew with facility; and he methodically secured his observations by notes and sketches. The lasting impression which he has made upon North American botany is due to his habit of studying his subjects in their systematic relations, and devoting himself to a particular genus of plants until he had elucidated it as completely as lay within his power. In this way all his work was made to tell effectively.... It shows how much may be done for science in a busy physician’s horæ subsecivæ, and in his occasional vacations. Personally he was one of the most affable and kindly of men, and was as much beloved as respected by those who knew him.”

TO SIR EDWARD FRY.

October 10, 1884.

It is quite time that I responded to your kind and welcome letters. First, let me congratulate myself upon having you as a colleague in the Royal Society, in which I think you need not owe your fellowship to official dignity. I believe you took honors in science at the university, along with our friend Professor Flower.

You mentioned your approaching visit, with Lady Fry, to Lord Coleridge.... Lord C., referring to your visit, sent us very cordial messages in a letter to my colleague Professor Thayer. He will know that his host in Boston, General Butler, is one of the candidates for the Presidency.

I am, as you may suppose, a bolter from the Republican presidential nomination. We even hope to give the electoral vote of Massachusetts, stanchest of Republican States, to the Democratic candidate. But I need not bore you with American politics.

Let me say how sorry we were not to see Miss Fox at our home. It might have been, except for a little journey we made from Philadelphia, of which I must tell you more.

I had a mere glimpse of Miss Fox at Montreal, and a little more of her cousin. She came late to Philadelphia, where Mrs. Gray (who was not at Montreal) and I had a most pleasant chat with her at a garden reception. The next day I went out to the suburban place where she was visiting, and came near to winning her for our expedition, at least as far as to Luray cave, and the Natural Bridge in the Valley of Virginia. But the engagements she had made could not be reconciled. Her hostess was to take her to this neighborhood, but too early for us to receive her here. All good people in this country think so much of Caroline Fox that they wished to know her sister.

I have not seen the book by Mr. Arthur on difference between physical and moral laws, and am not sure that I ever heard of it or of the author. Who is the publisher? I might find it at the university library. No, I never had the fortune to see, much less to know Maurice. Of course I have always known a good deal about him and of the remarkable influence he exerted, both in person and in his writings, “in which were some things hard to understand,” such as his liking for the Athanasian creed, but nothing that was not most excellent in spirit.

Of course I well remember Miss Wedgewood; and we had occasional correspondence up to the time when Darwin died, and she, on the part of the family, announced it to me. I am glad to know that she wrote the sketch of Maurice in the “British Quarterly.”

And now about ourselves. I got the Compositæ off my mind late in the spring, but not off my hands until sometime in August. At the end of August and of the pleasant part of the summer here (for it was delightful in Cambridge, so cool and quiet, and Mrs. Gray away only for three weeks with her friends on the coast) I went to the meeting of the British Association at Montreal; enjoyed it much; read a paper,[128] a sort of address, to the botanists coming over to North America, which the Section seemed to like and voted to print in extenso. (I will first print it here, and send you a copy. Not that there is much novelty in it, but it may be readable.) I had to leave the meeting after three or four days, and return here; sorry to leave our friend Mr. Walter Browne ill at the hospital with typhoid fever. He and his poor wife received every kind attention, but he died in a few days.

It is agreed that the British meeting was a distinguished success. It brought over a throng of English people, and the American savants (I cannot abide the word “scientists”) were in good force. We were repaid by the large attendance of British Association members at Philadelphia, where they contributed to make our meeting large and notable.

Up to this time the weather was all that could be wished, cooler, I suppose, than in England at the time. But that week at Philadelphia was raging. Mrs. Gray and I were there for the whole week, domiciled with friends in the heart of the city,--a city which never cools at night, as it does hereabouts. I bore the heat well, as my manner is; Mrs. Gray, fairly, by keeping quiet through the mornings and giving herself rather to the evening receptions, which were fine and most admirably managed. It grew cooler the moment the week was over and the session ended. Besides, we moved at once into a cooler region. It was arranged that I should lead any British botanists that cared to go on an excursion into the mountains of Virginia and Carolina. But they were otherways bound, so that I could take only my friend Mr. John Ball of London, your fellow F. R. S., taking also another American botanist, with whom we had visited these regions more than once before, and, to make it pleasanter, we added three ladies, wives and daughters of botanists, Mrs. Gray being one.

Our first day’s journey was to Luray, in the Valley of Virginia, between the Blue Ridge and the proper Alleghanies. The next day we visited the Cavern, which I think is the finest in the world, not forgetting that of Adelsberg in Styria. It is newly discovered, with wonderful wealth and beauty of stalactical formations, and is lighted up for visitors with electrical lights in all the larger chambers. That day we went on to the Natural Bridge, which we had not seen for many years. It was grander than I had remembered; indeed, it and the scenery around is worth a voyage and a journey to see. Then we went on to our favorite Roan Mountain, on the borders of North Carolina and Tennessee, one of the highest in the Atlantic United States, and the finest; the base and sides richly wooded with large deciduous forest trees in unusual variety even for this country, the ample grassy top (of several square miles) fringed with dark firs and spruces, and the open part adorned with thousands of clumps of Rhododendron Catawbiense, which when there last before, late in June, we saw all loaded with blossoms, while the sides were glorious with three species of Azalea, not to speak of many other botanical treasures. There, at top and at base, we passed four busy days. A narrow-gauge railway recently built, and new to us, reaches to the base of the mountain, up the Doe River, through most picturesque scenery, showing to most advantage in the descent. On our way back we diverged to visit some striking rock scenery on the upper Kanawha River, and thence to a mountain-top lower than Roan, but with the advantage of a charming little lake, with banks all fringed with Rhododendron maximum and Kalmia, hanging over the water for a rod or two, except on the side where the little hotel stands. Well, I have written a deal here, little as I have managed to tell you. I think you and Lady Fry should come over and see for yourselves, just a pleasant summer vacation, if you can leave Failand for so long.

TO J. D. HOOKER.

September 26, 1884.

So dear Bentham has gone,--not quite filled out his eighty-fourth year. Well, we could have wished this year of infirmity and suffering had been avoided. One would like to say good-evening promptly at the close of the working-day. But this we cannot order, so we must accept what comes. We shall miss him greatly. We have nobody left to look up to. He seems to have made a wise and good disposition of his effects.

Your two letters reached us at Philadelphia, on our return from North Carolina and Virginia....

Yesterday we had Sir William and Lady Thomson.[129] To-day Traill and wife (young and bright) of Aberdeen looked in and lunched.

I come home to a heap of letters and parcels and affairs, to keep me busy awhile....

Well, the meeting at Montreal was a success, and made a pleasant occasion. The influx of visitors from British Association to Philadelphia made that meeting very good too. George Darwin I just saw for a moment at Montreal, and Mrs. Darwin also at Philadelphia, one evening,--handsome and winning.

I hope you have got the copy of “Synoptical Flora II.” for your own shelf, through Wesley. Slips and omissions are already revealing, especially in the index.

I am wonderfully strong and well. Mrs. G. well up to average, both much set up by holiday, of which mine has now lasted a month....

What a deal you have fished out of Bentham’s earlier life! I thought you meant Toulouse, not Tours. Bentham used to speak of Toulouse and that part of France....

Among the inventive feats of his father was one I have somewhere heard or read of, that he made a fleet of articulated transport boats for descending the crooked channels of the Russian rivers.

I think you might have specified De Morgan’s discovery of Bentham’s contribution to logic, and his able defense of the reclamation, to which Herbert Spencer’s “Verdict” in 1873 was not particularly needed for the establishment of the fact. De Morgan was not a man to leave his work half done, especially as against Hamilton.

I only regret that the length to which these most interesting matters extended stood in the way of your giving a more detailed account of Bentham’s botanical work, on which another article would be timely.

I must now, before long, attempt something of this, for the American Academy’s éloge. And I pray you, if you are not doing it yourself, to send me hints and suggestions. Sheet full, and I will not begin another to-day, but add only my wife’s love to you and Lady Hooker.

January 9, 1885.

The souvenir of dear Bentham has come to hand, is in its place on my table, and the first use I make of it, now in position, is to write to you this letter of thanks,--to you for awarding it to me, and to dear Lady Hooker for so promptly forwarding it. The stand is a beautiful piece of marble, bearing its two inkstands.[130] Was there ever anything to occupy the sunken area between them?...

Of myself I have not much to write. The prospect of getting off for the latter part of winter has just prevented my settling down to the “Flora,” and I have found plenty else to keep me actively employed, mainly with a revision of some boraginaceous genera, now in printer’s hands, which I hope, while it unsettles old work, will settle it better and permanently, as far as anything we do can be said to be lasting.

I am well,--can hardly be said to need the holiday we have determined on.... We shall benefit much, I think probable, by getting off to meet the spring, avoiding February-April here, which are the only drawbacks to a climate of the best: for you know I do not at all dislike summer heat.

We have not troubled ourselves much as to where we would go. But now it does seem that we will go to the southern part of California, if possible by the southern Arizona route, which is near the Mexican boundary, and must be best for winter, and to return by the route through the northern part of Arizona, which should be pleasant in the latter part of April. Oh, that you and Lady Hooker could be with us.... And we shall be lonely without you on our travels, and feel that “that great principle of the survival of the fittest” has been woefully violated....

CITY OF MEXICO, Sunday, February 22, 1885.

Your letter of January 20, forwarded from Cambridge, overtook us at San Antonio, Bexar. We left home February 3, in bitter cold, for St. Louis, where I had an interview with old Shaw, and heard him read his rearranged will, which is satisfactory, as it will allow his trustees, and the corporation of Washington University there, to turn his bequests to good account for botany; will be an endowment quite large enough for the purpose.

Thence, rail--two nights and a day--to Mobile, where it was warm and springlike, but no flowers out, barring an early violet. Thence to New Orleans, which has a great exposition and a crowd, and where, in a sudden change to cold, I caught a dreadful cold. It began with such a hoarseness that, going, Mrs. G. and I, to dine with Dr. Richardson (son-in-law of Short), where we met your and Dyer’s friends, Mr. and Mrs. Morris[131] of Jamaica, I was taken speechless. I was only for a few hours at the Exposition (I hate such), but Mrs. Gray went a second time to see Mexican things. Dr. Farlow, joining us at New Orleans, brought, to our surprise, passes for us to go by the Mexican Central Road to the city of Mexico and back to El Paso (the junction with the road to California), and we decided to undertake it. One day and a night took us to San Antonio, Texas, where we stayed Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, till evening, trying to recover from our colds, driving over the country through chaparral of mesquite bushes (Prosopis) and opuntias. When we awoke next morning we were coursing along the rocky banks of the Rio Grande del Norte, mounting into a high region more arid still, if possible, the only flowers out a Vesicaria; and descending into a great cattle ranch region we reached El Paso at 3.30 A.M.; got to bed again; had the day there and on the other side of the river, at El Paso del Norte, in the Mexican State of Chihuahua, whence at evening we took our Pullman for three nights and two days’ journey to this place, through Chihuahua, Zacatecas, Aguas-Caliente, Leon, etc., reaching here yesterday morning at 8.30. We are comfortably placed in the Hotel Iturbide. Farlow and I have looked about somewhat, though I am still suffering from catarrh and cough; Mrs. Gray laid up with hers. This afternoon a Mexican gentleman to whom we took letters called and drove Farlow and me out to Chapultepec, whence a most magnificent view of the whole Valley of Mexico and the surrounding mountains, including Popocatapetl and its more broadly snowy companion,--with its more difficult name, meaning White Lady,--at this season always with cloudless tops. The cypresses of Chapultepec are glorious trees, plenty of them, full of character, and of a port which should help to distinguish the Mexican species from the North American. I wish you could see them. And such old trees of Schinus molle, the handsomest of trees either old or young, the old trunks wonderfully bossed. Is it a native of Mexico? I thought only of Chili. But it is well at home here.

Such yucca trees as we have seen on the way here, with trunks at base two or three feet in diameter, weirdly branched, looking like doum palms. Opuntias of two or three arborescent species, some huge, and other cacti not a few.

I have still to compare Arizona with the plateau of northern Mexico. But I see they are all pretty much one thing....

ORIZABA, February 27, 1885.

Since my former sheet, Farlow and I have been mousing about the city of Mexico, I coughing most of the time, in a clear, dry air and nearly cloudless sky, weather which should be most delightful, but somehow it is bad for the throat (for the natives as well as for us), and the rarefied air puts one out of breath at a little exertion; mornings and evenings cool and fresh, the midday warm, in the sun trying.... Called in a physician, a sort of medical man to American embassy, who came here with Maximilian, and stayed. Very intelligent. Ordered us to come here as soon as Mrs. Gray could travel. Here only 4,028 feet and a warmer damp air. Well, we tried it yesterday; had to leave city of Mexico at 6.15 A.M., our hotel at 5.30 cold, no breakfast; had to travel till ten or nearly before we could get even a decent cup of coffee, at junction of road to Vera Cruz and Puebla, and after rising to 8,333 feet in getting out of the Valley of Mexico; but at 1 P.M., at Esperanza, in the Tierra Frias, had a capital dinner, and met train from Vera Cruz. Here pine-trees on the hills all round us, two species. Soon begins the descent and a complete change of air, the other side all dry and horrid dust, making our catarrh worse than ever; now the moisture from the Gulf of Mexico makes all green; the road by skillful engineering pitches down 4,000 feet to this, the greater part of the descent all in eight or nine miles of straight line as the bird flies. In all the Valley of Mexico and to the north of it really nothing in blossom yet, all so dry, except Senecio salignus, if I rightly remember the name, a shrub of 1-4 feet, just becoming golden with blossoms. But the moment we began the descent all was flowery, two species of Baccharis, Eupatoria, Erigeron mucronatum (so much cultivated under the false name of Vittadenia triloba), Lœseliæ species, Arbutus, (Xalapensis) in bud, and many things of which we shall know more when we return over the route.... Very comfortable hotel here. Botteri[132] left an élêve here who knows something of botany, but lives out of reach on a hacienda. We found a garden combined with a small coffee plantation. The proprietor thereof, speaking a little French, has filled his ground with a lot of things that will stand here. It is just in _medias res_, two hours below Tierra Frias, two above (or at Cordoba, only seventeen miles, but 2,000 feet lower) true tropical. Papaya fruits here, also Persea gratissima, etc. And the oranges are delicious. I have passed the whole morning with the garden man, while Farlow went up a small steep mountain, and brought back various things. We shall drive this afternoon to the Cascade of Rincon Grande (cascades are most rare in Mexico).

The air here suits us; shall try to leave our coughs here and at Cordoba below.

On the way here had views of Popocatapetl and the more beautiful and diversified Iztaccihuatl from the sides, and wound round the base of Mt. Orizaba. A true Mexican town this. Mrs. Gray enjoying sights from the window; will be able to drive out this afternoon, though the clouds are sinking too much and mist gathering, a great contrast to the city of Mexico.

P. M.--We went, but saw the falls (very picturesque) in a wet mist, and for botany got a lot of subtropical Mexican plants, the like of which I never saw growing before: among Compositæ, Lagascea (large heads), Tree Vernonias of the Scorpioides set, Calea, Andromachia, etc., etc.

CORDOBA, March 2, 1885.

... To continue. On Saturday, a fine and sunny morning, Farlow and I drove off for the Cascade of Barrio Nuevo, almost as beautiful as the other, and had a long morning in clambering and collecting. In the grounds on the way are planted trees of a Bombacea, in flower before the leaf, probably Pachira. The peak of Orizaba shows as a narrow streak of white over a near mountain, from the windows of our room; but by going half a mile east the whole comes out splendidly.

Sunday morning we were comparatively quiet, but at 3.50 P.M. we were off for Cordoba, less than an hour distant by rail, and 2,000 feet lower. A queer little town, with only a poor, truly Mexican inn, a set of rooms in the single story, all round a patio, into which the country diligence drives, and on rear side the stables back against the rooms, as Farlow found to his discomfort, only a thin wall between his room and the horse’s mangers. Tile floors, cot-beds, but clean, and the food certainly better than was to be expected.

Fine view of Orizaba. An American, Dr. Russell, here, whom I looked up. And he took us to an American German, Mr. Fink, who collects Orchids, etc., commercially. He took us to a garden, and we were going to the river bank and ravine, but, though out of season, rain set in, and we came home rather wet.

I fear our afternoon excursion may be lost, but it now looks like clearing. The way from Orizaba here is magnificent, for mountains, railroad-engineering, and culture vegetation. I hope we can get into some wild tropical vegetation, but uncertain; can stay here only to-morrow at most. We are cut off from news of all the world; little could we get in Mexico city; less since....

You would be amused, as I have known you to be in Italy, at my knack of explaining myself by gesture, and so getting on....

LATHROP, CALIFORNIA, May 1, 1885.

We have only this morning left Rancho Chico and have set our faces eastward. Waiting for our train I improve the rare bit of leisure to write a line.

First of all, we are both well. No cough, however obstinate, could abide this charming climate. And having no excuse for further stay we enter upon the “beginning of the end” of a holiday which now only lacks ten days of three months. What a pity to turn our backs on all the fruits we see growing around us, having enjoyed only the cherries, which are just coming in. Well, we have a basket of them, as big as plums, and so good! to solace the first days of the desert part of our journey. We shall have desert enough on the way home, as we cross Arizona and New Mexico by the Atlantic and Pacific railway, through the northern part of those Territories (having come out by the southern), a country quite new to us. How often we have wished for you and Lady Hooker!

When and whence did I write you last? I think from Los Angeles and before our trip to San Diego.

Instead of a short journey by sea (which my wife detests) we made a long circumbendibus by rail to the southernmost town in California; declined an invitation to go over the border into Mexican California; was, in fact, too unwell to do anything in the field, and so, finding the coast too cool and damp, returned, stopping two nights with Parish and wife, at their little ranch at San Bernardino, in a dry and warm region, a charming valley girt with high mountains, on the eastern side still snow-topped,--indeed they are so most of the summer. Back thence to Los Angeles we soon went, down to the port San Pedro, and took steamer for Santa Barbara, the very paradise of California in the eyes of its inhabitants, and indeed of most others. Our cruise of only eight hours on the Pacific was pleasant, and most of it in daylight.

Arriving after dark, we found, to our surprise, the mayor of the little town on the wharf with a carriage for our party (wife, Farlow, and self), who drove us to the fine watering-place kind of hotel, and on being shown at once to our rooms we found them all alight and embowered in roses, in variety and superbness such as you never saw the beat of, not to speak of Bougainvilleas, Tacsonias, and passion-flowers, Cape-bulbs in variety, etc., etc., and a full assortment of the wild flowers of the season. Mrs. Gray was fairly taken off her feet. During the ten or eleven days we stayed, there were few in which we were not taken on drives, the most pleasant and various. The views, even from our windows, of sea and mountain and green hills (for California is now verdant, except where Eschscholtzia and Bahias and Layia, etc., and Lupines turn it golden or blue) were just enchanting; and on leaving we were by good management allowed to pay our hotel bill.... Had you been of the party I believe the good people would have come out with oxen and garlands, and would hardly have been restrained.

Here we were driven out fifteen miles to one of the great ranches,--a visit of two nights and a day,--that of Mr. Cooper, a very refined family; the whole ranch flanked on the windward sides by eucalyptus groves, apricots, almond, peach-trees, etc., by the dozens of acres; but the produce on which the enthusiastic owner has set his heart is that of the olive, and he makes the best of olive oil, and in a large way. Hollister’s ranch is still larger, miles long every way; both reach from mountain-top to sea, and have fine drives up cañons, in these fine oaks and plane-trees, occasionally an Acer macrophyllum and an Alder. Avoiding the sea, which gives a short route, we reached San Francisco by a lovely drive, in a hired wagon, over a pass in the Santa Inez Mountains to the coast (south) at Ventura, and so up the broad and long Santa Clara Valley to Newhall, on the Southern Pacific railway, not very far above Los Angeles (two days’ drive, most pleasant), then by rail overnight and to this place to breakfast, and on to San Francisco.

We stopped this time at the Lick House, where we had, European-wise, a room, not quite so good as we had at the Palace Hotel eight years ago, and fed at the restaurant, very nice and reasonable, when we were not visiting or invited out, which was most of the time. So it was not expensive, our room (parlor, bedroom shutting off, and a bathroom) costing only about 12 shillings for us both. Harkness looks the same, but older; is absorbed in fungology. Here again we were made much of for twelve days, most busy ones. General McDowell, who you remember dined us at the “Palace,” is ill; we saw him twice, and he has since so failed that we daily expect to hear of the end.

May 4. In Farlie’s Chalet hotel in the Grand Cañon of the Colorado.

Dr. Brigham, you remember, who took us to the Chinese theatre, is now married, and has three children by a bright wife, with a rich father, and a handsome house, above Presidio,--a fine site, and filled with fine things from all countries, and such a rose-garden; gave us a handsome dinner. Alvord and wife (president now of Bank of California), noble people, did wonders for us, and a dinner and drives. A lunch over at the university; and another by General (commanding the Western Department in place of McDowell, and in the choice house the latter built) and Mrs. Pope (she an old acquaintance); then we went over to San Rafael, a night with the Barbers, and next day a drive up behind Mount Tamalpais to the cañon reservoir of water-works, and saw, at length (having failed on all former visits), that huge Madroña (Arbutus Menziesii), like one of those great and wide-spreading oaks you used to admire. Next day to Monterey, which we saw nothing of on that hurried visit eight years ago, when our single day was sacrificed to Hayden’s insane desire to see a coal mine on a bare hill! Now there are eighteen miles of good drive around all Point Pinos and through it, and Cupressus macrocarpa on the seaside verge, noble and picturesque old trees, and no lack of young ones, a little back, and grand sea and shore views.

On the other side of the town, in a grove of great live oaks and Pinus insignis mixed, made into a beautiful park and park gardens, with a separate railway station in the grounds, is the crack hotel of the Western coast, the work of the Pacific Railway Company, which has also bought and appended the whole of the pine grove, five or six miles long and two or three wide, thus preserving Pinus insignis and the cypress, the latter much needing it.

Mr. and Mrs. Alvord, knowing our visit was to be, had telegraphed for best rooms, and joined us unexpectedly; took us on the long drive the next day, with four fine horses.... They showed us no end of kind attention.

At length we got off for a visit to Chico (leaving Farlow to apologize at Santa Cruz, etc.), a quicker way than before, a steam-ferry across Suisin Bay helping. And there we had a nice time indeed, from Saturday evening to Friday morning, every day, drives and picnics, and botanizing, and feeding on (besides strawberries) such cherries, just coming in in acres of cherry-orchards, the only fruits yet in season. That big fig-tree, in the branches of which I used to hide and feast, or rather cram, is bigger than ever, but the figs green, to my sorrow. And we cannot wait for them. General Bidwell[133] and wife have aged little in the eight years, are as good as ever, full of all noble and good works, as well as of generous hospitality; have taken wonderfully to botany; remember you most affectionately and long for a real visit. His great ambition is to make drives, good roads, through the ranch, for pleasure as well as use; he has now over a hundred miles of them. That big oak[134] is finer than ever; not a dead branch.

Well, off at length; at Lathrop joined our eastward train at evening; up the San Joaquin valley all night, and had early morning for the wonderful Tahachapi Pass. Breakfast at Mohave. (I must send you a railroad map.) There took the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, over the sandy desert to the Great Colorado at supper, to Peach Spring station at two A.M., and next morning in an easy “buckboard wagon” twenty-two miles and 4,000 feet descent into this wonderful cañon, a piece of it, which its explorer, Major Powell, has made famous.

This afternoon and evening we are to get up and back, and on in the night and morning to Flagstaff, and the ancient cliff dwellings.

IN THE CARS, KANSAS CITY, May 8, 1885.

Let me finish up these mems. We have now only a run of eleven hours to St. Louis, where we stay three or four days with Dr. Engelmann (Jr.), and then home.

The cañon trip well repaid the journey and its rough accessories. Some of the views are of those depicted by Powell. We find that Tylor and Moseley were here last year. As the man whom we had introductions to at Flagstaff was absent for a day or two, though we found he had left substitutes, and as we wanted to get home as soon as we could, we gave up the visit to the cave and cliff dwellings. I dare say the models in clay, made at Washington, are as good as the originals. So we came on, one and a half nights and two days, and to-night we shall sleep in beds at St. Louis. We bear this sort of travel quite well. From Mohave to the Colorado is very sandy and complete desert, descending eastward many hundred feet. Near Mohave lots of tree yuccas, looking very like those in northern part of Mexico. From the Colorado to Peach Spring we passed in the dark, but had risen to about 6,000 feet, and we kept on an elevation of 4,000 to nearly 8,000 feet all across the rest of Arizona and New Mexico, the higher parts wooded with conifers, that is, Pinus ponderosa of the Rocky Mountains form and Juniperus. At Las Vegas, New Mexico, we laid over one train, to rest and visit the Hot Springs; no great to see, except a spick and span new hotel, too fine for the place, and some very hot water.

Well, this trip, which will nearly round out to three and a half months, has been long and enjoyable indeed.

At St. Louis will be letters, perhaps one from you.

Ever yours, A. GRAY.

Part of yesterday and last night was down along the Arkansas, the reverse of our journey eight years ago. Country much settled up.

CAMBRIDGE, August 26, 1885.

... Charles Wright is dead, at seventy-three and a half; had been suffering of heart-disease, went out to his barn, was missed as the evening drew on, was found dead. So they go, one by one....

The summer is almost gone,--one hardly knows how,--but, then, we have a longer and finer autumn than you have in England.

The five hundred copies which I printed in 1878 are gone. And, as I have to print new copies, I take the opportunity to correct on the stereotype plates when I can,--a great lot of wrong references to volume, page, plates,--that is, such as we have found out. What a bother they are, and how impossible to make correct in the first place, and to keep so through the printer’s hands! Then there are lots of important corrections to make, and new species and genera galore.

So,--in an evil moment, you will say--I set about a supplement to this new issue,--also of the other part. For, as I have now brought out in the two parts all the Gamopetalæ, and as I begin to doubt if I shall hold out to accomplish much more, I thought it best to leave behind at least these in good state. But it is no small job. And this, with the great amount of herbarium work that goes along with it, or beside it, just uses up the summer; for I dare guess it will keep me occupied all September....

The last news of you is a letter from your dear wife to mine,--giving such a pleasant picture of the two boys, and of your enjoyment of them. You say you are quite well, and Lady Hooker much the same,--which is comforting. But you are naturally growing older, like myself. I tire sooner than I used to do, and have not so sure a touch nor so good a memory. The daily grind we both find more wearing....

We should like to come over to you once more,--but it seems less and less practicable; unless I become actually unfit for work, and then I shall not be worth seeing....

Your affectionate old friend, A. GRAY.

Old, indeed; the president of the Naturæ Curiosorum wrote me on August 3 that I have been one of the _curious_ for fifty years.

* * * * *

Dr. Gray wrote a notice of Charles Wright for the “American Journal of Science,” in which he says that “Charles Wright was born at Wethersfield, Connecticut; graduated at Yale in 1835. Had an early love for botany, which may have taken him to the South as a teacher in Mississippi, whence he went to Texas, joining the early immigration, and occupied himself botanizing and surveying, and then again in teaching. He accompanied various expeditions, and no name is more largely commemorated in the botany of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona than Charles Wright. It is an acanthaceous genus of this district, of his own discovery, that bears the name of Carlowrightia. Surely no botanist ever better earned such scientific remembrance by entire devotion, acute observation, severe exertion, and perseverance under hardship and privation.” He was engaged later for several years “in his prolific exploration of Cuba.”

“Mr. Wright was a person of low stature and well-knit frame, hardy rather than strong, scrupulously temperate, a man of simple ways, always modest and unpretending, but direct and downright in expression, most amiable, trusty, and religious. He accomplished a great amount of useful and excellent work for botany in the pure and simple love of it; and his memory is held in honorable and grateful remembrance by his surviving associates.”[135]

TO JOHN H. REDFIELD.

CAMBRIDGE, November 3, 1885.

MY DEAR REDFIELD,--I was interested in your Corema Con.

I have a remark to make on the last sentence of it; I would ask, How could the plant have an introduction following the glacial period? And where could it have come from?

Of course my idea is that it existed at the higher north before the glacial period--that is my fad.

But one sees that this is one of a few plants that may be appealed to in behalf of an Atlantis theory,--as coming across the Atlantic, making this Corema a derivation from C. alba, of Portugal, or of _its_ ancestor. But the Atlantic is thought to be too deep for an Atlantis; and we do not need it much.

What induces me to refer to your paragraph is to ask whether your “following the glacial period,” that is, recent introduction, means in your thought that our species is a direct descendant of Corema alba, which by some chance got wafted across the Atlantic.

That is the most probable notion, next to my theory.

For consider, we know the genus only on these two opposite shores.

Perhaps--so far as I know, there is no more C. alba in the Old World than C. Conradii in the New. And if it were in New England that the former occurs, we could say that the Old World received the genus from the New--via the Gulf Stream.

November 6.

... I start farther back than the retreat of the glaciers. I suppose that the common ancestor of both Coremas was in the high north before the glacial period, and that the two, in their limited but dissociated habitats, are what is left after such vicissitudes!

In that view it does not matter how long New England coast was under water. Our plant and its companions were then further south or west.

Yours ever, A. GRAY.

On the approach of Dr. Gray’s seventy-fifth birthday it was suggested among the younger botanists that some tribute of love and respect should be presented to him. Accordingly a letter was sent to all botanists whose addresses could be obtained within the very limited time. A silver vase was decided upon, and designs furnished, which were most happily and beautifully carried out. The description, copied from the “Botanical Gazette,” gives its size and decorations.

“It is about eleven inches high exclusive of the ebony pedestal, which is surrounded by a hoop of hammered silver, bearing the inscription ‘1810, November eighteenth, 1885--Asa Gray--in token of the universal esteem of American Botanists.’

“The decoration of one side is Graya polygaloides, surrounded by Aquilegia Canadensis, Centaurea Americana, Jeffersonia diphylla, Rudbeckia speciosa, and Mitchella repens. On the other Shortia galacifolia, Lilium Grayi, Aster Bigelovii, Solidago serotina, and Epigæa repens. The lower part of the handles runs into a cluster of Dionæa leaves, which clasps the body of the vase, and their upper parts are covered with Notholæna Grayi. Adlumia cirrhosa trails over the whole background. The entire surface is oxidized, which gives greater relief to the decorations.”

Greetings in the form of cards and letters, sent by those who gave the vase, were placed on a silver salver accompanying the gift, with the inscription, “Bearing the greetings of one hundred and eighty botanists of North America to Asa Gray on his seventy-fifth birthday, November 18th, 1885.”

Dr. Gray was exceedingly touched and delighted, as well as overwhelmed with surprise. And the day, with pleasant calls and congratulations from friends and neighbors, gifts of flowers with warm and kindly notes, was made a memorable one indeed.

His response to the senders of the vase was printed and sent to all who could be reached.

HERBARIUM OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY, CAMBRIDGE, MASS., November 19, 1885.

HANG _To J. C. Arthur, C. R. Barnes, J. M. Coulter, Committee, and to the numerous Botanical Brotherhood represented by them_:

As I am quite unable to convey to you in words any adequate idea of the gratification I received on the morning of the 18th inst., from the wealth of congratulations and expressions of esteem and affection, which welcomed my seventy-fifth birthday, I can do no more than render to each and all my heartiest thanks. Among fellow-botanists, more pleasantly connected than in any other pursuit by mutual giving and receiving, some recognition of a rather uncommon anniversary might naturally be expected. But this full flow of benediction, from the whole length and breadth of the land whose flora is a common study and a common delight, was as unexpected as it is touching and memorable. Equally so is the exquisite vase which accompanied the messages of congratulation and is to commemorate them, and upon which not a few of the flowers associated with may name or with my special studies are so deftly wrought by art, that of them one may almost say, “The art itself is nature.”

The gift is gratefully received, and it will preserve the memory to those who come after us of a day made by you, dear brethren and sisters, a very happy one to

Yours affectionately, ASA GRAY.

TO S. M. J.

November 19, 1885.

We meant our day to have been most quiet, and I completely and J. largely were taken by surprise. So we had to send for two or three neighbors, especially to see the vase.

J. will bring it in to you, no doubt, for she is very proud of it. The lines I have already written have taken all the strength out of my right arm, but not all the love out of my heart, of which a good share is yours.

TO W. M. CANBY.

CAMBRIDGE, November 19, 1885.

MY DEAR CANBY,--Many thanks for your felicitations. There is much I want to write, and to say what a surprise we had, and how perfect the vase is. But my arm is worn out with note-writing.

Yours affectionately, ASA GRAY.

Two poems and a poetical epigram came among the rest!

TO SIR EDWARD FRY.

CAMBRIDGE, January 31, 1886.

MY DEAR FRIEND,--I am a laggard correspondent, I fear. Here are your two most friendly and interesting letters, as far back as November, one of which crossed, and one which announced, the reception of my long letter which gave a sketch of our journeyings which began almost a year ago. For we are now already in the middle of another winter. I doubt if we shall flee from this one, although it has shown some severity. In the first place, we may thankfully say that neither Mrs. Gray nor I can say that we require it; and I cannot bear to lose the time: I seem to need the more of this as the stock diminishes; for, somehow, I cannot get as much done in a day as I used to do. Moreover, it is no good running away from winter unless you can go far. For our southern borders have been unusually wintry, and they want our guards and preparations against cold.... We were glad enough to get back to our well and equably warmed house, where, indeed, we are most comfortable.

You called my attention, I believe, to Professor Allen’s book on the “Development of Christian Doctrine.” I take shame to myself that I did not procure and read it. But I know its lines, and read some part of it before it was in the book, and, of course, I like it much.

I am going, in a few days, to send you a little book, with similar bearings, which I read in the articles of which it is made up. I think you will find much of it interesting.

Bishop Temple’s “Bampton Lectures” seemed to me very good as far as it went, but hardly came up to expectation.

I saw something of Canon Farrar when here. He pleased well, and I think was well pleased; and personally he was very pleasing and lovable.

I wish more of the English Churchmen would visit us, and give more time especially to the study of their own branch of the church in the United States,--a very thriving one. I think they might learn much that would be helpful and hopeful,--difficult as it may be to apply the experience and the ways of one country to another.

I have seen, but not read, Mr. Forbes’s “Travels in Eastern Archipelago.” Those who have read it here say it is very interesting. We have a great lot of his dried plants from Sumatra and Java, unnamed, which at odd hours I am arranging for the herbarium. I hope that in his new journey he will manage to make better specimens. But, as he is primarily an entomologist, this can hardly be expected. But, if I rightly understand, he goes out now with a good backing and probably better conveniences for collecting than he could have had before.

We have been, and still are, much interested in English politics and election excitements. You are having very anxious times, indeed. What a pity that some one party, that is, one of the two great parties, is not strong enough, and homogeneous enough, to command the situation for the time being, and to deal independently of Parnell, or, indeed, of Chamberlain....

We Americans are wonderfully peaceful--our only real questions now pending are financial, and those not yet treated as they ought to be, on party lines. We have an awful silver craze; but we hope to arrest it before it comes to the worst, though sense and argument are at present ineffectual.

We have a comfortable trust in the principle that “Providence specially protects from harm the drunken, the crazy, and the United States of America.”

I see our friend Professor Thayer now and then. He is well and flourishing. Mrs. Gray and I are very well indeed, and we send our most cordial good wishes to you all.

Very sincerely yours, ASA GRAY.

TO J. D. HOOKER.

CAMBRIDGE, March 9, 1886.

When I read A. de Candolle’s notice of Boissier, I thought it was “charming.” Anyhow, it brought back to me the charming memory of a very lovable man. I dare say neither De Candolle nor I has done justice to Boissier’s work. I could only touch and go,--make a picture that would just sketch the kind of man he was.

... Yes, I have got on Ranunculaceæ, and have done up to and through Ranunculus, minus the Batrachium set, of which happily we have few in North America, that we know of. But having done some while ago the Gamopetalæ of Pringle’s interesting North Mexican collection, I am now switched off to the same in a hurried collection made by Dr. Palmer, in an unvisited part of Chihuahua, in which very much is new. One after another those Mocino[136] and Sessé plants turn up. Also those of Wislizenus, whom the Mexicans for a time interned on the flanks of the Sierra Madre.

We are bound to know the botany of the parts of Mexico on our frontier, and so must even do the work. Pringle goes back there directly, with increased facilities, and will give special attention to the points of territory which I regard as most hopeful.

Trelease,[137] our most hopeful young botanist,--established at St. Louis,--is here for a part of the winter, to edit a collection of the scattered botanical publications of Engelmann which Shaw pays for--or at least pays for to a large extent. He would have the plates and figures, and that will double the cost and the sum Shaw offered to provide. We may have to sell some of the edition in order to recoup the charges....

Yes, you hit a blot. I can see to all my own books, such as the “Synoptical Flora.” But, somehow, I cannot restrain the publishers from altering the date of their title-pages when they print off a new issue from the stereotype plates....

What do I call an alpine plant? Why, one that has its habitat above the limit of trees--mainly--though it may run down lower along streams. But in a dry region, where forest has no fair chance, we might need to mend the definition.

Upon your paper, I got a few notes--offhand, by references.

I premise that in New England we have two places where several alpine plants are stranded at lower levels than they ought, peculiar conditions of configuration and shelter having preserved them, while the exposed higher grounds have lost them. They are Willoughby Mountain and the Notch of Mt. Mansfield, Vermont.

As to your III. Of the whole list of alpine plants of Oregon and northward and not of California, I can put my hand upon only two that are yet known in California, viz., Armania verna and Vaccinium cæspitosum, which comes in its var. arbuscula only.

There is a great lack of alpine arctic plants in California. First, because there is not much place for them now; secondly, because there have been such terrible and vast volcanic deposits--lava and ashes--that they must have been all killed out.

But for all these matters we shall one of these days have fuller and surer data--after my day. Well, I must stop....

TO A. DE CANDOLLE.

CAMBRIDGE, June 29, 1886.

MY DEAR DE CANDOLLE,--Your letter and inclosure of the 15th inst. gave me much pleasure. Not only had I a natural curiosity to know more of Coulter,[138] but also I find it important to know his routes in Mexico and California.

At Los Angeles, last year, I fell in with one of the “old settlers” who knew him, and who accompanied him on that expedition into the Arizona desert on the lower Colorado. Mr. Ball will ascertain and let me know other particulars of the man, and the date of his death, which probably occurred not long after that last letter to you, from Paris.

In various ways I am convinced that I am on the verge of superannuation. Still I work on; and now, dividing the orders with Mr. Watson (who, though not young, is eight or ten years my junior), we are working away at the Polypetalæ of the “Synoptical Flora of North America,” with considerable heat and hope. But it is slow work!

Tuckerman, our lichenologist, has gone before us! I shall in a few days send you a copy of the memorial of him which I contributed to the Council report of the American Academy of Sciences and am having reprinted in the “American Journal of Science” for July.

My wife is fairly well.... She is always busy; and we both enjoy life with a zest, being in all respects very happily situated, particularly in having plenty to do.

Let us hope that you may still be able to give us better accounts of Madame de Candolle and of yourself; and believe me to be always,

Yours affectionately, ASA GRAY.

TO J. D. DANA.

BOTANIC GARDEN, CAMBRIDGE, MASS., September 20, 1886.

MY DEAR DANA,--Well! “the books” have just come.

I suppose you are in no hurry for notices of them, and would prefer short ones....

I rather like to do such things incog., as in the “Nation,” in which I sometimes take a shot at this or that.

I and wife are well,--very.

Had a week in Old Oneida, which still looks natural. I am grinding away at “Flora,” and probably shall be found so doing when I am called for.

Very well! I have a most comfortable and happy old age. Wishing you the same,

Yours ever, A. GRAY.

TO J. D. HOOKER.

CAMBRIDGE, September 15, 1886.

... Has Ball returned to England? If so, please tell him that he promised to look up in Dublin, and give from his own knowledge, some details of Coulter’s life. Alphonse de Candolle has sent me copies of what letters he has, and they enable me to trace Coulter’s movements and whereabouts, which is helpful.

Old Goldie,[139] your father’s correspondent lang syne, died only this summer, very old.

My last bit of work was upon our Portulacaceæ for my “Flora.” The genera are thin. It is as much as one can do to keep up Montia (though if that fails Claytonia should go to it rather than the contrary, by right,--but convenience would call for the contrary), also Spraguea.

I have been having a holiday. A fortnight ago my wife and I set out; made a visit to my natal soil, in the centre of the State of New York, in Oneida County; had a gathering of the surviving members--most of them--of the family, of which I am the senior,--two widowed sisters (one a sister-in-law), there resident, and an older one who came with her husband from Michigan; my oldest brother and family, who have the paternal homestead; the unmarried sister, who passes all her winters with us; children and some grandchildren. One brother, a lawyer in New York, and residing near by in New Jersey, with wife and two boys, did not come. Another absent nephew is in California, well settled there.

It is a pretty country, the upper valley of the Mohawk and of tributary streams from the south, which interlock with tributaries of the Susquehanna, at a height of 1,000 to 1,500 feet above tide-water, beautiful rolling hills and valleys, fertile and well cultivated, more like much of rural England than anything else you saw over here. We wished you and Lady Hooker could have been with us in our drives. The summer air is just delightful, soft and fresh.

On our return we struck off and visited my brother Joe and family, in the environs of New York, and so came home much refreshed--though, indeed, I hardly felt the need of a holiday.

Sargent has just started for a trip to the southern part of the mountains of North Carolina,--a region we are fond of and long to show you.

Now I am going to pitch into Malvaceæ. I am quite alone. Goodale took off Sereno Watson with him, on a slow steamer to Amsterdam; will run for a fortnight or so over nearer parts of the Continent, and Watson will look in at Kew. He was much worn down, and the rest and change will be good for him. I have filled my sheet with this gossip.

* * * * *

It was during this visit that Dr. Gray, when the family gathered one morning for breakfast, had disappeared. He came in smiling when the meal was half over, and in answer to the anxious question where he had been, said, “Oh, I have been to say to Mrs. Rogers that I forgave her for getting above me in the spelling-class.”

CAMBRIDGE, October 31, 1886.

DEAR HOOKER,--Thanks for a nice long letter from Bournemouth, September 27. Thanks, too, for the hope--though rather dim--that you and wife may come over to us in the spring. Before winter is over we must arrange some programme; for we four must meet again somehow and somewhere, while in the land of the living. But how is a problem.

... I see how difficult it must be for you to get away as far as to us. Our obstacle to any amount of strolling away is mainly the fear that if I interrupt my steady work on the “Flora of North America,” I may not get back to it again, or have the present zeal and ability for prosecuting it.

On the other hand, if I and my wife do not get some playdays now, while we can enjoy them, the time will soon come when we shall have to say that we have no pleasure in them. Therefore we are in sore straits.... If really you cannot come, then we will brave out the winter here, as we did last winter and are none the worse; then we will seriously consider whether Mahomet shall go to the mountain, which will not come to Mahomet.

I grind away at “Flora,” but, like the mills of the gods, I grind slowly, as becomes my age,--moreover, to continue the likeness, I grind too “exceedingly fine,” being too finical for speed, pottering over so many things that need looking into, and which I have not the discretion to let alone. Consequently the grist of each day’s work is pitiably small in proportion to the labor expended on it. I am now at Malvaceæ, which I once enjoyed setting to rights, and of which the North American species have got badly muddled since I had to do with them.

If Sereno Watson--who should be back again in twenty days--will only go on with the Cruciferæ, which he has meddled with a deal, and then do the Caryophyllaceæ, which are in like case, we may by March 1st have all done up to the Leguminosæ.

We learn to-day, through a pamphlet sent by Miss Horner, that Bunbury is dead--in June last....

Your “Primer”--new edition--has not come yet. Do not forget it. And then, as my manner is, I will see if I can find fault with it. Same with Bentham’s “Hand-book,” new edition....

I do not wonder that you are happy and contented. We should so like to see father, mother, and children in their encampment at Sunningdale. May plenty of sunshine be theirs!

Ball has sent me early sheets of his book. I must find time to go through its pages.

The L.’s abroad, except the two girls (who are to winter at San Remo) are now en voyage homeward. William, their father, has been painted by Holl. He is a good subject. Saw your sister B. (and kind Lombe); she writes a charming letter to my wife; seems to hold her own wonderfully.

CAMBRIDGE, November 22, 1886.

Well, I have got safely through my seventy-sixth birthday, which gives a sort of assurance. I have always observed that if I live to November 18, I live the year round!

You are working at Euphorbs, etc.; I at Malvaceæ, in which I find a good deal to do for the species, and something for the betterment of genera....

TO SIR EDWARD FRY.

CAMBRIDGE, November 13, 1886.

MY GOOD FRIEND,--Let me turn for a moment to our quarter-millennial celebration of the foundation of our university, though you in Europe may count our antiquity as very modern. It was an affair of three days, culminating on Monday last, and was altogether very pleasant. You will like to know that among the honorary degrees given, was one to Professor Allen, of the Episcopal Theological School here, in recognition of the merits of his “Continuity of Religious Thought,” which work, I am glad to remember, you much liked. The Mother Cambridge sent to us the master of St. John’s, Dr. Taylor, and Professor Creighton, of Immanuel College, to which the founders and first professors of Harvard belonged. Mrs. Creighton came with him, and we found them pleasant people. I suppose Lowell’s oration, Holmes’s poem, and the doings in general will be in print before very long, and I shall not forget to send you a copy.

We have been away from Cambridge very little this last summer and autumn, only on very short visits, or one rather longer one to my birthplace in the central portion of New York, where we had a family gathering.

There is a lull just now in your political situation. I certainly at your last election should have gone against Gladstone! How so many of my countrymen--I mean thoughtful people--approve of homerule, i.e., of semi-secession, I hardly understand. But local government as to local affairs is our strength, and is what we are brought up to. Also, our safety is in that the land--the agricultural land--is so largely owned by the tiller....

We should like to see old friends in England once more in the flesh, and the feeling grows so that I may feign a scientific necessity, and we may, if we live and thrive, cross over to you next summer. At least we dream of it, though it may never come to pass.

TO J. D. HOOKER.

CAMBRIDGE, January 18, 1887.

MY DEAR HOOKER,--Glad to see the “Botanical Magazine” figure of Nymphæa flava †.6917.

There is something not quite right in the history as you give it. Leitner was the botanist who showed the plant to Audubon, and gave it the name which Audubon cites, and he died--was killed by the Florida Indians--“half a century ago.” He was the “a naturalist” you refer to.

The whole history and the mode of growth, stolons, etc., has been repeatedly published here in the journals, etc. See Watson’s “Index” Supplement, etc. Not that this is any matter, even about poor Leitner.

CAMBRIDGE, January 25, 1887.

... Yes, it has seemed to me clear that you could not cross the Atlantic at present. And so it logically follows that we must.

I had been coming to this conclusion, and only the day before your letter arrived my good wife and I had put our heads together and concluded that, if nothing occurred meanwhile to prevent, we would cross over, say in April. It is time we set about it, if we are ever to do it; and several things seem to indicate that this is a more favorable time than we can expect later.

As this will be “positively Dr. Gray’s last appearance on your shores,” we must make the most of it. Shall we have a Continental jaunt together, or shall you be too much tied to home?

Meanwhile I must work hard and steadily....

As you “weed out” surplus of herbarium Kew, keep them for me. When I come I will take care of them. It is (as usual) good of you to think of us. You have done so for so long a time that it is only “second nature”--very good nature too.

Williamson, plant-fossil, long ago begged us to come to British Association at Manchester, and be his guests. If I do, what think you of my preparing a paper for Botanical Section; and will you join me in it? two venerables--_anglice_ old fogies--on Nomenclature and Citations.

There are some points I should like to argue out and explain; to put on record, though it may be of no use. Not that one wants to get up a discussion in such a body--that would never do....

CAMBRIDGE, February 22.

Thank you for sending me your edition of Bentham’s “Handbook,” which looks well in its more condensed shape, and in which I dare say you have put a good deal of conscientious work. But it seems to me that Reeve & Company give it poor type and paper.

I am putting through a rehash of my “Lessons in Botany,”[140] more condensed, yet fuller, and with a new name. This, with the companion book, which I must live to do over, _Deo favente_, is the principal thing for bread, and I need it for an endowment to keep up the herbarium here, after my time.

Well,--don’t speak of it aloud,--we have secured our passages for April 7, and if I can get present work off my hands in time, we may be on your soil soon after Easter.

You may imagine me very busy, indeed.

Yours affectionately, A. GRAY.

Dr. Gray, with Mrs. Gray, landed in England, April 18, and went from Liverpool to stay at Sunningdale with Sir Joseph and Lady Hooker, where a quiet, restful week was most pleasantly passed. He went to London the first of May for a few days, meeting again old friends, dining with them, and dropping in for calls, “to report himself,” as he said. He did a little work at Kew, going back and forth; then crossed to Paris, finding at the Jardin des Plantes what he had especially wanted to see, Lamarck’s herbarium, which had been acquired since he was last there. It completed satisfactorily his studies in Asters, as he had now seen everything of the genus to be found in herbaria of importance.

A journey in Normandy with Sir J. D. Hooker had been planned for May, but Sir Joseph was unable to leave England, so Dr. Gray arranged to go to Vienna. He greatly enjoyed the railroad journey from Bâle, in May, the fruit-trees white with blossoms about Lake Zurich, then the wilder mountain scenery, and Salzburg, all bringing back the memories of his first European journey forty-eight years before.

TO A. DE CANDOLLE.

HERBARIUM, KEW, April 23, 1887.

MY DEAR DE CANDOLLE,--You will be a little surprised at the sudden transfer of Mrs. Gray and myself to England; but I wanted a vacation and one more bit of pleasant travel with Mrs. Gray while we are both alive and capable of enjoying it. Whether I shall look in upon you at Geneva is doubtful, but it may be, even for a moment. We never expect to have repeated the pleasant week at Geneva of the spring of 1881.

We expect to go to Paris early in May, but subsequent movements are uncertain.

Always, dear De Candolle, affectionately yours,

ASA GRAY.

TO ----.

May 15, 1887.

I think the journey from Bâle, in Switzerland, to Salzburg was wonderfully fine and a great success, and that May is a good time to do it, while there is plenty of snow in the mountains. Lake Wallenstadt showed to great advantage. And I had no idea that the pass of the Arlberg, from Feldkirk to Innspruck, was so high or so very fine. I believe it is the highest railway pass across the Alps. I was quite unprepared (which was all the better) for the exquisite and wild, and in parts grand, scenery of the next day’s journey through the heart of Lower Tyrol and the Salzburg Salzkammergut, by a slower train, a roundabout road making more than twice the direct distance from Innspruck to Salzburg, through the Zillerthal and over a fairly high pass on to the upper part of the Salzach, and down it through some wild cañons into the plain, from nine A.M. till five, of choicest scenery. The great castle, so picturesquely placed in the Lichtenstein (plain), is Schloss-Werden. Rainy day at Salzburg, or should have had noble views. If the weather had been good, I think we would have driven from Salzburg to Ischl, and then come by the Traunsee to Linz. But after all, from my remembrance, it would hardly have come up to what we had already seen. And though it was a rainy day for the Danube, we did see everything pretty well, and most comfortably, in the ladies’ cabin of the steamer, with windows all round the three sides, and most of the time the whole to ourselves, or with only one quiet lady, who evidently cared nothing for the views. J. says I was bobbing all the time from one side to the other. I was looking out for the views which I had when going up the Danube forty-eight years ago. J. thinks it not equal to the Rhine, but there is rather more of it, or scattered over more space.

TO SIR J. D. HOOKER.

HÔTEL BEAU RIVAGE, GENEVA, May 24, 1887.

I do believe we shall have to return to America to thaw out. Here we arrive in Geneva this morning, full of memories of delightful summer, ten days earlier than this in 1881, to find snow down even to foothills of the Jura and on Mont Salève; it came two days ago, and the air, though clear, is very chilly, which is not to my liking.

Vienna was much better, excepting our last day, which had a cold and high wind, and our night journey to Munich was cold and comfortless, in spite of the best appliances.

I have nothing new to tell you of Vienna, where we made out our full week, quite enjoyingly.

Besides the normal sight-seeing, and drives around this truly magnificent city, we went one afternoon to the astronomical observatory out at Wahring (Weiss and wife being old acquaintances), and next day they went with us to the Prater. Körner and daughter took us to Schönbrunn. I went with these to a meeting of the Academy of Sciences; had a good turn around the new and immense, but mostly yet unarranged, Natural History Museum with Hauer, the director, and Steindachner, the zoölogical curator; had a look at the Hofherbarium on the upper floor, now under charge of a young man, Beck (and looked up some of Haenke’s things there). How different from forty-eight years ago, when Endlicher was curator, Fenzl, assistant, and the former took me out to the Botanic Garden to call on old Jacquin, etc. Steindachner, who was with Agassiz for a year or two at Cambridge, would have us come to his house for our last evening; Süss[141] and frau to meet us,--charming couple; would have been lots more, but we cut it short; had a jolly, pleasant evening. Körner was prevented from coming. He has been asked to take Eichler’s[142] place at Berlin; a botanic garden man and good teacher. Weisner’s physiological laboratory I had an hour or two in, and saw all his gimcracks; some nice ones. Saturday evening we went by rail to Salzburg (at day-dawn); Munich at sunrise, not stopping; on to Ulm soon after ten A.M. Bad weather kept Mrs. Gray indoors all day Sunday, though I ran about. Monday morning she had with me a good look over Ulm minster, inside and out; the upper part of the spire is rebuilding, and is to be carried up with the true taper, according to the original plan. That sight-seeing done, we came yesterday to, and across, the Lake Constance, to Zurich, for late afternoon and evening, and on to Geneva overnight.

I passed an hour this morning with De Candolle,--aged, but fairly cheerful,--and he begged me to breakfast with him to-morrow. Müller Argoviensis was not at his post.

What a season you have had, and what a fiasco Normandy would have been, as you say. Why, the apple blossoms are only now out here. We did have comfortable, warm and dry weather at Vienna, and the Belvidere gallery is most enjoyable. Berlin we don’t in the least care for; but our faces are rather set for Amsterdam, Antwerp, etc. If you have a call to write me soon after getting this, for a day or two you might venture Amsterdam, poste restante; but later the old address, to Hôtel St. Romain, Rue San Roque, would be the thing until further notice; add “To be kept till called for.”

I doubt if we shall be back in England before the 17th or 18th, and then Mrs. Gray will have to join her luggage, left somewhere in the neighborhood of Charing Cross, where it now reposes, and we shall have to hasten down to Cambridge....

We have had an enjoyable time; and, I suppose, shall by day after to-morrow set off Rhine-wards, stopping, perhaps, a day at Strasburg, and by the Low Countries back to Paris, probably not to be again on this side of the Channel, unless you and Lady H. will take a trip to Normandy with us, either in August or September.

I hope you will soon have done with Phyllanthus, and that you will not hesitate to restore as many old genera as your own judgment dictates. Your experience and present insight must exceed Bentham’s. And what you must needs indicate, the next man will take up, and probably cackle over.

My wife joins in love to yours and you; will be likely to write when she can.

* * * * *

From Geneva the old journey of 1850 was nearly repeated, and Dr. Gray came down the Rhine, by rail this time, to Brussels, Amsterdam, the Hague, back to Antwerp and Brussels, and so to Paris. Besides meeting old friends, the object of the journey, he said, was to have one more good look at picture-galleries and churches and cathedrals; and great was his enjoyment of them, unwearied his wanderings about the places where he stopped. The new galleries at Amsterdam and Brussels, and their superb collections, delighted him, and the grand music of the cathedrals and their noble interiors seemed a new source of pleasure.

He missed his old friends in Paris; Decaisne was gone, and Lavallée, etc. He went to a meeting at the Institute, and saw Chevreuil, who had passed his hundredth birthday, but spoke a few words with life and animation. There were some excursions in the neighborhood, and some work in the herbarium, where he received every kind attention.

TO ----,

PARIS, June, 1887.

... The views on the garden and park side of the Palace of Fontainebleau, and over the carp pond, which came up to the walls, were very pretty; partly clipped and trimmed trees made into green walls, partly more English.

... At half past one, in an open light carriage with a canopy overhead, keeping off the hot sun, and letting through the fresh air, we were off for our two hours’ drive through the famous forest. The main avenues, long and straight, and formal; but the forest was voted very handsome. A change came when we reached the ruin of the hermitage of Franchard, and the extensive region of rocks and dells. We were taken through by an old guide, who, with much pride, paraded the little and queer English he had picked up, and showed off all the sights, the most important to him being those in which bits of rock could be likened to a lion’s head, a beef’s tongue, a turtle, and the like. First and foremost, in a sort of over-arched grotto, was “La roche qui pleure,” a great disappointment! A sort of crack or joint between two layers of the rock exuded a little moisture in one spot; _voilà tout_. We shed about as many tears in our laughter at the sight; more indeed, for we could see not a drop. I dare say at some seasons there may be a little drip. But the dells among the rocks were fine, and the stories of the boar hunts, and all that, by the kings and queens and courtiers, could be made fairly real on the spot, and the famous points of view, one of Maria Theresa, one of Eugénie, were effective. A drive back by another route took us through some older forest; occasionally a really old tree, and one truly old and large linden. There may be parts in which there are trees as large and venerable as in old English parks, but we saw only this one old tree. The forest is very large, and we had to be content with this one drive. We might have had one hour more of it, for we had all that to wait for our train back to Paris, very pleasant as it cooled at evening.

June 9, I at work at Jardin des Plantes, but back at noon, and at half past twelve we drive across Paris to the Gare de Sceaux and out to Vilmorin’s. At Massy, where we leave the railway, Henry de Vilmorin awaited us, with his nice carriage, and took us to the charming place at Verrières, so full to us of recollections. It is prettier than ever, the house enlarged and so full of very nice things. V. and I were most of the time in the grounds, looking at plants, back to afternoon tea and cake, which we much enjoyed, being hungry, and to accommodate us they put forward the dinner hour to six. Besides the children and English governess, we had at dinner a very interesting abbé, with a charming, intellectual face, and a manner to match--a Monsignor; for he takes that title as a member of the Pope’s household or personal staff. He had passed a portion of his life at Moscow, as the curé of a French Catholic church there, had seen a good deal of the Roman Catholic bishop of Chicago and other American brothers; was a good deal interested in America, and after the ice was broken and he found he could understand J.’s French, and even mine, which amused as well as instructed him, we had much chat. We had to break off. Vilmorin drove us back a few miles to Fontenay-la-Rose, to take a particular train, and so we were at our quarters in Rue St. Roche before dark. That need not mean very early, for the days here are wonderfully protracted.

* * * * *

He crossed to England June 14, passed a day or two in London, and then went to the Camp, quite glorious with the rhododendrons in blossom; and with Sir Joseph and Lady Hooker, on the 18th, went to Cambridge, where they were the guests of Mrs. Darwin. A delightful Sunday was spent in meeting old friends, and on Monday were all the ceremonies, new and strange, of conferring of degrees. The great sensation of the day was the presence of the Lord Mayor with all his train; he also was to have a degree.... No one can surpass Dr. Sandys in the felicity with which he presents the distinguished men whom Cambridge University honors with its highest degrees. In his presentation of Dr. Gray, he said (we translate from the exquisite Latin):

“And now we are glad to come to the Harvard professor of Natural History, facile princeps of transatlantic botanists. Within the period of fifty years, how many books has he written about his fairest science; how rich in learning, how admirable in style! How many times has he crossed the ocean that he might more carefully study European herbaria, and better know the leading men in his own department! In examining, reviewing and sometimes gracefully correcting the labors of others, what a shrewd, honest and urbane critic has he proved himself to be! How cheerfully, many years ago, among his own western countrymen was he the first of all to greet the rising sun of our own Darwin, believing his theory of the origin of various forms of life demanded some First Cause, and was in harmony with a faith in a Deity who has created and governs all things! God grant that it may be allowed such a man at length to carry to a happy completion that great work, which he long ago began, of more accurately describing the flora of North America! Meanwhile, this man who has so long adorned his fair science by his labors and his life, even unto a hoary age, ‘bearing,’ as our poet says, ‘the white blossom of a blameless life,’ him, I say, we gladly crown, at least with these flowerets of praise, with this corolla of honor (his saltem laudis flosculis, hac saltem honoris corolla, libenter coronamus). For many, many years may Asa Gray, the venerable priest of Flora, render more illustrious this academic crown.”

* * * * *

England was in a stir with the Queen’s Jubilee; it was impossible to be in London on the twenty-first, as Dr. Gray must get to Oxford to receive his degree on the twenty-second, and a good part of the day was used in crossing country by various railroads; but the sight of the crowds, the decorations, the bands everywhere, was very interesting, and the enthusiasm contagious. Oxford had its gay share of illumination in the evening, and the next day Dr. Gray received his degree with several others, among them his old Cambridge acquaintance, Story, the sculptor.

TO ----.

BLACHFORD, Sunday, July 2.

... I am to add some supplementary notes.

At the Cambridge University lunch, I had Mrs. Jebb assigned to me to take in. Oscar Browning took the seat on my right. Opposite was a man I was glad to see, Lord Acton,--middle-aged, of high scholarship and admirable taste, who fought a long and losing battle against the superstitious tendencies of his (Roman Catholic) church; and after lunch I had a pleasant conversation with him; was glad to find he was one of the new D. C. L. crew at Oxford, where I again saw something of him. He has been in the United States when only a baronet.

At the Oxford Christ Church dinner I was placed at the high table, only two away from the Dean’s left, the two Dr. Jellett, provost of Trinity College, Dublin (who was doctored), and the bishop of Gibraltar. On my left was Talbot, the warden of Keble College (the very high church one), and I know little of what I ate or drank, for we had a steady stream of conversation on high topics, treated with immense frankness on both sides. Dr. Jellett made the return-thanks speech for all four of the new-made Doctors present,--himself, Story, Dr. Wright, Arabic professor at Cambridge, and myself, a speech full of Irish humor. That was arranged to be all. But the lower tables somehow knew by instinct what Story wanted, and called him out. He made a rather funny speech. Then Liddon had to move thanks to the president of the feast, the Dean (Liddell), and a capital speech he made, even to my apprehension. I saw that there was a good deal between the lines in what he was saying, but did not know the half of it till I was told afterwards. Paget, my host, was opposite me. Prestwich, whom I had not before got sight of, was next him. It was a long affair, but very pleasant to me.

Next morning was the call on Professor Bartholomew Price and wife, in a charming old house, meeting Tylor and Maspero; then we went to the Museum, giving our time there to the new well-contrived Pitt-River Museum of Ethnology; then walked to Acland’s and made a long call on his daughter, who seemed pleased, and we certainly were to see her again, and looking well, though a sufferer and invalid. The dinner at Balfour’s, J. will describe.

Friday, at ten o’clock, the Hookers called with a carriage, and we drove to Nuneham, seven miles, where Colonel Harcourt, older brother of Sir William Harcourt, had invited us to see the place and lunch. It is one of the principal seats of the Harcourt family,--not the oldest, which is on the Thames much higher up--and is in view from the railway to London, a handsome but externally rather plain pile, and so full of remarkable things. As soon as we arrived we were shown through most of the house by Colonel H., and some of the historical curiosities were brought out.... There is an unparalleled gallery of original portraits of British poets, mostly given by themselves, almost all of them....

The “omnibus” had been ordered, and we drove through the park, into the arboretum, and through it by winding roads were landed at the conservatory and gardens, the dairy, the ornamental grounds, filled with statues, etc., inscriptions in verse and prose set up by the wits of the times of George II. and III. In the house we were shown some of the letters, of which there is a vast quantity, now being sorted and arranged in volumes and indexed. One volume is of those of George III., beginning with those when a small boy, and badly spelled, ending with some when an old man and insane. Then a walk along the terrace and the side commanding the fine views, from some points Oxford dimly seen in the distance; then the lunch.

Our carriage was announced, and we took leave, a shorter way through the park being pointed out. Got back to Oxford just in time to take leave of H. (her husband out) and take a fly to train, and so to London; separated from the Hookers, who had to take a slip car, to be dropped at Reading. We went straight to Paddington without stop, and thence in a cab to the Deanery, where our dear good friends awaited us.

Saturday afternoon, we were all going with the Churches to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s garden party at Lambeth Palace, when, at breakfast, Mrs. C. got an invitation from Mrs. Gladstone to hers, at Dollys Hill, up near Harrow, and the question of dividing forces came up. It was settled, as I wished, by Mrs. C., Fred, and I going by underground to the Gladstones, while J. and the Misses C. went by carriage to Lambeth. Mrs. Gladstone sent her carriage down to the station, a mile off, which took us up to a pleasant country house, which some one (I think Lord Aberdeen) has lent to the G. O. M. It was all lucky for me. At Oxford, Bryce had asked me to his dinner for July 6, where he said Gladstone wanted to meet me, and our engagements here made that impossible. At the garden party, while we were there, the people were few and a good chance to talk. Mrs. Gladstone was most gracious. Gladstone said he was very glad to see me in the flesh, and we had pleasant talk, of nothing in particular. Lord Granville sought an introduction, asked Lowell, who was there, to introduce him, and then introduced his brother, Lord Leveson Gower, and afterward his son. Then I was put at the tea-table at the side of Miss Gladstone, the principal of Newnham College at Cambridge, a most bright and pleasant person; and after a long talk, a lady with a very pleasant and handsome face pushed in a chair between us and asked an introduction,--Lady Lyttleton.... I met her next day at evening, at Mr. Talbot’s (M. P.) house, where I went to be taken to a good seat at St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster, now serving for the Abbey, to hear Talbot, the warden of Keble, preach.

Sunday morning, to continue my separate doings, I went to the Temple Church, to hear the very sweet music, better in my opinion than that of St. Paul’s, and to hear the chaplain (Master is his proper title), Vaughan. Capital sermon it was. Afternoon I was quiet. At seven o’clock I went to Westminster to hear Talbot, the warden of Keble. These very high clergymen have a way of preaching broad-minded sermons. Talbot’s might have been preached by Phillips Brooks, or even by A. P. Peabody, except for an incidental phrase or two, and except for some posturing at the prayers. So my idea of the man, as a man of excellent sense, in spite of his setting in a very superstitious school, was confirmed.

Tyndall dinner; here as a guest, I was the third on the left of the chairman (Stokes, president of Royal Society), only Lord Bathurst and Lord Derby between. The speaking I thought heavy enough, except for Lord Derby’s speech, which was pointed and witty, and Lord Rayleigh’s, at the end, which was neat and sensible. Met there (in Willis’s Rooms; the dinner was in the Almack’s ballroom of old days) a good many old acquaintances, and of course had a good time.

* * * * *

From London, after more entertainments, Dr. Gray went to Devonshire, where he made a charming visit at Blachford with his friends Lord and Lady Blachford; most interesting excursions followed over the downs, a day up the Tamar to Cothele; and he made other visits on the way back, one to his old Cambridge friend, Mrs. James, near Exeter, where he had an afternoon call at Killerton, Sir Thomas Acland’s, and saw the fine beeches, etc.; returned to London, where there was much visiting before he went to Edinburgh for another degree. On the way to the north he visited the grounds of Welbeck, and saw the fine trees of Sherwood (Robin Hood’s) forest,--beeches, and grand, hoar old oaks.

From Edinburgh Dr. Gray went through England to Normandy, meeting Sir Joseph Hooker and his party at Rouen; then came a delightful trip given to churches and cathedrals.

He wrote: “Bayeux and Coutances surprised us, they are so very good; only Amiens and St. Ouen can compare with them in beauty, especially interior views.

“No two of all these Normandy churches are alike; even those of essentially similar style differ both within and without so much that you would not wish to miss any one. Those old church builders were geniuses, and worked by inspiration.”

He gave a day to Mont St. Michel, and then separating from the Hookers he went to Chartres, to see it again after thirty years, and by Rouen and Amiens returned to England; when came an interesting visit to Harpenden to Dr. and Mrs. Gilbert, viewing the famous experiments in agriculture at Rothampstead. And the seeing of cathedrals was closed by a most delightful and busy day at Canterbury with Canon and Mrs. Fremantle.

At the end of August he went to Manchester to attend the meeting of the British Association, and he and Mrs. Gray were guests of Professor Williamson; De Bary and M. de Saporta being also under the same hospitable roof. It was an unusual assemblage of botanists, and a very enjoyable occasion.

Dr. Gray seconded Sir Henry Roscoe’s address at the opening of the meeting with this short speech:--

“For the very great honor of being called upon to second the motion for a vote of thanks to your illustrious president, I am mainly indebted to that deference which is naturally accorded to advancing years; a deference which sometimes, as in the present case, takes one unawares.

“In looking over the list of Corresponding Members of the British Association, I find myself, much to my surprise, nearly, if not quite, the oldest survivor.

“I recognize, therefore, a certain fitness, on this score, in the call upon me to be the spokesman of those, your brethren from other lands, who have been invited to this auspicious gathering, and to the privilege of listening to the very thoughtful, well-timed, and most instructive address of your president.

“As guests, we desire, Mr. Mayor, heartily to thank the City of Manchester and the officers of the Association for inviting us; we wish to thank you, Sir Henry, for the gratification your address has afforded us.

“Convened at Manchester, and coming myself by way of Liverpool, I would say, personally, that there are two names which memory calls up from the distant past, with unusual distinctness, both names familiar to this audience, and well-known over the world, but which now rise to my mind in a very significant way. For I am old enough to have taken my earliest lessons in chemistry just at the time when the atomic theory of Dalton was propounded and was taught in the text-books as the latest new thing in science. Some years earlier, Washington Irving, in his Sketch-book, had hallowed to our youthful minds the name of Roscoe, making it the type of all that was liberal, wise, and gracious. And when I came to know something of botany, I found that this exemplar as well as patron of good learning had, by his illustrations of monandrian plants, taken rank among the _patres conscripti_ of the botany of that day.

“The name so highly honored then we now honor in the grandson. And I am confident that I express the sentiments of your foreign guests whom I represent, when I simply copy the words of your president in 1842, now reproduced in the opening paragraph of the address of the president of 1887, transferring, as we fitly may, the application from the earlier to the later Manchester chemist.

“‘Manchester is still the residence of one whose name is uttered with respect wherever science is cultivated, who is here to-night to enjoy the honors due to a long career of persevering devotion to knowledge.’

“I cannot continue the quotation without material change. ‘That increase of years to him has been but increase of wisdom,’ may, indeed be said of Roscoe no less than of Dalton; but we are happy to know that we are now contemplating not the diminished strength of the close, but the manly vigor of the midcourse of a distinguished career. Long and prosperously may it go on from strength to strength.

“In general, praise of the address which we have had the pleasure of hearing would not be particularly becoming from one whose chemistry nearly ended as well as began with the simple atomic theory of Dalton. But there is one topic which I may properly speak of, standing as I do as a representative of those favored individuals which your programme, for lack of a better distinguishing word, calls ‘foreigners.’ I refer to the urgently expressed ‘hope that this meeting may be the commencement of an international scientific organization.’ For this we thank you, Mr. President, most heartily. This is, indeed, a consummation devoutly to be wished, and confidently to be hoped for by all of us, especially by those for whom I am speaking.

“Not only we Americans, who are of British descent, and who never forget that blood is thicker than water, but as well our Continental associates on this platform, of the various strains of blood which, interfused, have produced this English race and fitted it for its noble issues,--we, each and all, I repeat, accept this name of ‘foreigners’ only in the conventional sense which the imperfection of the language imposes. In the forum of science we ignore it altogether. One purpose unifies and animates every scientific mind with ‘one divine intent,’ and that by no means the ‘far-off intent’ of which the poet sings, but one very near and pervading. So we took to heart the closing words of your president’s most pertinent and timely address. Indeed, we had taken them to heart in anticipation, and so have come to this meeting, one hundred strong or more (in place of the ordinary score) fully bent upon making this Manchester meeting international.

“Far back in my youthful days there was a strong-willed President of the United States, of military antecedents, who once drew up and promulgated an official order which somewhat astounded his cabinet officers. ‘Why, Mr. President,’ they said, ‘you can’t do that.’ ‘Can’t do it?’ replied General Jackson; ‘Don’t you see that I have done it?’ And so we internationals have come and done it. I am the unworthy spokesman of such a numerous and such a distinguished array of scientific foreigners as have never been assembled before. Next year, if you will, you shall have as many more. When you too are ready to cross the Channel or the North Sea, we shall compose only a larger scientific brotherhood. And when you cross again the Atlantic, the brotherhood of science will be the more increased, and its usefulness in proportion.

“In behalf of your foreign guests, I heartily second the motion.”

* * * * *

From Manchester Dr. Gray went to Failand, to his friend Sir Edward Fry; then followed a visit to Miss North, in Gloucestershire, where he met, among others, Mr. and Mrs. Elwes,[143] and drove one day to Tortworth to lunch with Lord and Lady Ducie; then to Kew. A few days there with his kind friends, Dr. and Mrs. Oliver, a farewell visit to his old friend, Miss Sullivan, at Broom House, to the Camp to say goodby to the Hookers, and finally to Liverpool to sail in the Pavonia, October 7. Just six months, as Dr. Gray said, of wonderful enjoyment and success; everything had gone as it should, there were no mishaps, the days had run on as each had been planned, and he came home in wonderful vigor and spirits.

CAMBRIDGE, October 24, 1887.

DEAR REDFIELD,--Thanks, many, for letter of the 22d....

We have had “a good time,” and after long play I am getting down to work....

Thanks to you all for your congratulations, in which my good wife sincerely joins.

Yours affectionately, ASA GRAY.

HERBARIUM OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. BOTANIC GARDEN, CAMBRIDGE, MASS., October, 1887.

DEAR HOOKER,--Your welcome letter in this morning. I was just writing a notice of Ampelideæ, and your remarks are in time for me to sharpen it up a bit. I think I can smash his notice about Ampelopsis.

Who is Miss Grant, who says she knows you both? She sculps, I believe.

Ever yours, A. GRAY.

There was much to do on getting home and settling down again, and many things were planned for the winter’s work. Dr. Gray particularly wished to write some accounts of the old botanists he had seen in his earlier visits, being stirred thereto by Reichenbach[144] of Hamburg, and by the stories he told one evening at Dr. Oliver’s, at Kew, when all agreed it was a pity some of these characteristic things should not go on record. He took up work on the “Flora,” wrote a review of “Darwin’s Life and Letters,” and had a busy time before him.

Professor Baird, director of the Smithsonian, and an old friend, had died during the summer, and Dr. Gray, from his long connection with the institution, was much interested in the appointment of his successor. He went on in November to Washington to a special meeting of the Regents, when Professor Langley was appointed; wrote from Washington of the wonderful amount he had done in one day, and hurried back; liking always, if he could, to surprise those at home by being somewhat earlier than he had promised. He began the Annual Necrology for the “American Journal of Science.” He was already at work on the Vitaceæ for the “Flora.”

He went in to Boston for the family Thanksgiving dinner, though there had seemed some threatening of a cold, but he pronounced himself perfectly comfortable. Still there was a quick breathing and some listlessness, so that he was nursed a little on Friday; though he saw Miss Murfree, who had been brought by Mrs. Houghton to ask him to settle some question about a flower of the Southern Alleghanies, and he entered into the matter with all his old life and eagerness. That evening he had two slight chills, so that the doctor was summoned the next day, and fearing some chest trouble, as he seemed threatened with one of his bronchial attacks, advised him to keep in bed. On Sunday his pulse and temperature had improved so much that he was allowed to get up and go down stairs at noon, the doctor congratulating him on the success of the treatment. There seemed a weakness of the right hand, which, however, passed away, and he wrote that evening the letter to Dr. Britton, which follows, and when remonstrated with for making the exertion, said “it was important and must be written.”

Sunday Evening, November 27, 1887.

DEAR DR. BRITTON,--I wish to call your attention either in a personal way or in the “Bulletin,” if preferred, to a name coined by you on the 223d page of this year’s “Bulletin.”

“Conioselinum bipinnatum (Walter, Fl. Car. under Apium), Britton, Selinum Canadense, Michx., 1803.”

I want to liberate my mind by insisting that the process adopted violates the rules of nomenclature by giving a superfluous name to a plant, and also that in all reasonable probability your name is an incorrect one.

Take the second point first. On glancing at the “Flora of North America,” of Torrey and Gray, 1, 619, where the name Conioselinum Canadense legitimately came in, you will notice that the name Apium bipinnatum, Walt., is not cited as a synonym; also that the synonymous name of Cnidium Canadense, Spreng., is cited with “excl. Syn.” This Apium bipinnatum, Walt., you might gather was one referred to. Sufficient reason for the exclusion by Dr. Torrey might have been that Michaux’s plant is a cold northern one, which nobody would expect in or near Walter’s ground--the low and low middle part of Carolina. Besides, the preface of that “Flora” states that Walter’s herbarium had meanwhile been inspected by Dr. Torrey’s colleague, who may now add that the Apium bipinnatum is not there. So that the name you adopt rests wholly upon a mere guess of Sprengel’s, copied by De Candolle, dropped on good grounds by Torrey, but inadvertently reproduced in Watson’s “Index,” copying De Candolle. I suppose you would not contend that a wholly unauthenticated and dubious (I might say, doubtless mistaken) name, under a wrong genus, should supersede by its specific half a well-authenticated and legitimate name. And I am sure that you will not take it amiss when I say that very long experience has made it clear to me that this business of determining rightful names is not so simple and mechanical as to younger botanists it seems to be, but is very full of pitfalls. I trust it is no personal feeling which suggests the advice that it is better to leave such rectifications for monographs and comprehensive works, or at least to make quite sure of the ground.

We look to you and to such as yourself, placed at well-furnished botanical centres, to do your share of conscientious work and to support right doctrines. So I may proceed to say that, upon the recognized principles since the adoption of the Candollian code, your name of Conioselinum bipinnatum, even if founded in fact, would be inadmissible and superfluous. By a corollary of the rule that priority of publication fixes the name, taken along with the fact a plant-name is of two parts, generic and specific, it follows that in any case, Conioselinum Canadense is the prior name for those who hold to the genus Conioselinum. I have laid down what I take to be the correct view as to this, in my “Structural Botany,” paragraph 794, where it is supported by the high authority of Bentham. I believe it is more and more acceded to by the most competent judges. There are those who make transpositions of divorced halves of plants name, and who, also make the law of priority mechanically override other equally valid laws, without regard to sense. To such the old law maxim of the elder De Candolle was applied; _summum jus, summa injuria_. If you like to adopt their ideas, you have at hand a still older, the very oldest, name, namely, Conioselinum Chinense, for I can certify that the plant we are concerned with is Athamantha Chinensis of Linnæus.

Very truly yours, ASA GRAY.

The next morning he seemed bright and well, but on going down to breakfast there came a slight shock in the right arm, which seemed, however, to pass off after he had rested. He managed to put up, for two friends in England, copies of his “Review of the Life of Darwin,” in the “Nation,” penciling the address so that it could be read. But a more severe shock returned in the early afternoon, and for a few moments a loss of articulation. That disappeared and the physician looked hopefully at the case, though recommending extreme quiet for mind and body. By Wednesday evening he seemed greatly improved, but the next morning the power of connected speech had gone. He could repeat words spoken to him, and could sometimes, apparently with long striving, connect the wish and the words, but for the most part he had lost the power of using the word he wanted, and could only express himself with signs, and his “eloquent left hand;” for the paralysis gradually increased until the whole right side was helpless. He lingered patiently in much weakness and at times suffering, until the 30th of January, 1888, when he gradually sank and quietly passed away at half-past seven in the evening.

Dr. Gray was buried in Mount Auburn, February 2, where a simple stone, bearing a cross, marks his grave, with his name and the dates 1810-1888.

APPENDIX.

A. DR. GRAY’S WILL.

Dr. Gray in his will left to the herbarium the proceeds of all his copyrights. His strong belief in the importance of a large and well-kept herbarium, as an establishment indispensable not only to the development of botanical studies at Harvard but also to the diffusion throughout the whole country of a knowledge of its flora, is shown by this bequest, and also by the active efforts he was constantly making in its behalf during his life and by the personal sacrifices to which he cheerfully submitted, that the herbarium might profit. Some of the difficulties in the development of his cherished project will already have suggested themselves to the reader of these pages. Others may be touched upon briefly here.

The reputation of Dr. Gray at home and abroad naturally served to draw to the herbarium large numbers of specimens, and the number was increased by the purchases which he contrived to make from time to time, either from his own scanty means, or from the occasional gifts of friends. The storing of his large and valuable collections in the small house in the garden where he lived was attended by so much danger of destruction by fire that he offered to present the collection to Harvard University, if a suitable building for its reception were provided; and, greatly to his relief, his herbarium was transferred in 1864 to the new fire-proof building, for whose construction twelve thousand dollars were given by his liberal friend, Mr. Nathaniel Thayer.

If Dr. Gray was able during his life to secure a building which at the time of its completion seemed ample for its purpose, he was less fortunate in his efforts to obtain a permanent fund for the maintenance of the collection. In 1864, the sum of $10,000-$12,000 was raised by friends for its support; but the interest of all the available funds was far short of what was necessary for the proper payment of a curator, for necessary purchases of plants and books and for running expenses. In fact, during his lifetime, running expenses could not have been met had it not been for occasional gifts from friends of the herbarium, including, for several years, a grant from the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture. The bequest in his will was an attempt on his part to replace, as far as he was able, the sums obtained by him annually from various sources during his life. But even with the amount derived from the copyrights, which must, of necessity, diminish in future years, the endowments of the herbarium are by no means sufficient to provide for its maintenance, even on the present scale. At the time of the transfer in 1864, the herbarium contained at least two hundred thousand specimens, and the library between two and three thousand works. Both have increased largely since that date.

B. A PARTIAL LIST OF THE WRITINGS OF ASA GRAY.

1. TEXT-BOOKS AND INDEPENDENT VOLUMES.

1836. Elements of Botany. New York.

1838-1843. Flora of North America, Torrey and Gray. Vol. I. 1838-1840; vol. II. 1841-1843.

1842. Botanical Text-Book. New York. Subsequent editions were as follows: Second, 1845; third, 1850; fourth, 1853; fifth (Introduction to Structural and Systematic Botany), 1857; second issue, 1860; sixth, part 1 (Structural Botany or Organography on the basis of Morphology), 1879.

1848. Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States. Subsequent editions were as follows: Second, 1856; third, 1859; fourth, 1863; fifth, 1867; second issue, 1868, 4 pp. added.

1848-1849. Genera Floræ Americæ Boreali-Orientalis Illustrata, I. 1848; II. 1849. New York.

1854. United States Exploring Expedition, Botany. Part I. Philadelphia.

1857. First Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology. New York. Revised August, 1868.

1858. How Plants grow, with a popular Flora. New York.

1868. Field, Forest, and Garden Botany. Second edition, 1870.

1872. How Plants behave. New York.

1876. Darwiniana: Essays and Reviews pertaining to Darwinism. New York. Collected from the Atlantic, The Nation, Am. Jour. Sci., Am. Sci. Assoc., Nature, N. Y. Tribune.

1878-1886. Synoptical Flora of North America. Vol. II. part 1, 1878. Second edition, 1886. Cambridge. Vol. I. part 2, 1886. Washington.

1880. Natural Science and Religion, Two Lectures. New York.

1887. Elements of Botany. New York.

* * * * *

1889. Scientific Papers of Asa Gray, selected by Charles Sprague Sargent; in two volumes. I. Reviews of Works on Botany and related subjects, 1834-1887. II. Essays, Biographical Sketches, 1841-1886. Boston.

2. CONTRIBUTIONS TO PUBLICATIONS OF SOCIETIES.

_Annals of the New York Lyceum_--

1835. A monograph of the North American species of Rhynchospora. III. 191-238 (reprint, 191-236).

1837. Melanthacearum Americæ Septentrionalis Revisio. IV. 105-140.

_Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences_--

1846. Chloris Boreali-Americana. Illustrations of new, rare, or otherwise interesting North American plants. Decade I. III. 1-56, pl. 1-10.

1849. Plantæ Fendlerianæ Novi-Mexicanæ. IV. 1-116.

1854. Plantæ Novæ Thurberianæ. N. s., V. 297-328.

1859. Diagnostic characters of new species of phænogamous plants, collected in Japan by Charles Wright, botanist of the United States North Pacific Exploring Expedition. With observations upon the relations of the Japanese Flora to that of North America, and of other parts of the Northern Temperate Zone. VI. 377-452.

1859. On the genus Croomia, with plate. VI. 453-457.

_Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences_--

1846. Characters of some new genera or species of Compositæ from Texas. I. 46-50.

1853. Characters of some new genera of plants, mostly from Polynesia. III. 48-54, 127-129.

1857. On the age of a large Californian coniferous tree. III. 94-97.

1861. Characters of some Compositæ in the collection of the United States South Pacific Exploring Expedition. V. 114-146.

1861. Enumeration of a collection of dried plants made by L. J. Xantus in Lower California. V. 153-173.

1861. Characters of new or obscure species of plants of Monopetalous orders in the collection of the United States Pacific Exploring Expedition. V. 321-352; VI. 37-55.

1864. A revision and arrangement (mainly by the fruit) of the North American species of Astragalus and Oxytropis. VI. 188-236.

1865. Characters of some new plants of California and Nevada, from the collections of Prof. William H. Brewer and Dr. Charles L. Anderson. VI. 519-556.

1870. A revision of the Eriogoneæ (with J. Torrey). VIII. 145-200.

1870. Reconstruction of the order Diapensiaceæ; revision of the North American Polemoniaceæ; miscellaneous botanical notes and characters. VIII. 243-296.

1872. Notes on Labiatæ; determinations of a collection of plants made in Oregon by Elihu Hall. VIII. 365-412.

1873. Characters of new genera and species of plants. VIII. 620-631.

1873. Notes on Compositæ and characters of certain genera and species, etc. VIII. 631-661.

1874. Notes on Compositæ and characters of certain genera and species. IX. 187-218.

1874. A synopsis of the North American Thistles; notes on Borraginaceæ; synopsis of North American species of Physalis; characters of various new species. X. 39-78.

1875. A conspectus of the North American Hydrophyllaceæ. X. 312-332.

1876. Characters of Canbya (n. gen.) and Arctomecon; characters of new species. With two plates. XII. 51-84.

1879. Characters of some new species of Compositæ from Mexico; some new North American genera, species, etc. XV. 25-52.

1880. Notes on some Compositæ; some species of Asclepias; a new genus of Gentianaceæ; miscellanea of the North American flora. XVI. 78-108.

1882. Studies of Aster and Solidago in the older Herbaria; Novitiæ Arizonicæ, etc. XVII. 163-230.

1883. Characters of new Compositæ with revisions of certain genera and critical notes; miscellaneous genera and species. XIX. 1-96.

1885. A revision of some Borragineous genera; notes on some American species of Utricularia; new genera of Arizona, California, and their Mexican borders, and two additional species of Asclepiadaceæ; Gamopetalæ Miscellaneæ. XX. 257-310.

1886. A revision of the North American Ranunculi; Sertum Chihuahuense; Miscellanea. XXI. 363-413.

1887. Revision of some Polypetalous genera and orders precursory to the Flora of North America; Sertum Chihuahuense; Appendix; Miscellanea. XXII. 270-314.

1888. Notes upon some Polypetalous genera and orders. XXIII. 223-227.

_Smithsonian Contributions_--

1852-1853. Plantæ Wrightianæ Texano--Neo-Mexicanæ. Part I. iii. 1-146; Part II. v. 1-119.

_Journal of the Boston Society of Natural History_--

1844. Characters of some new genera and species of plants of the natural order Compositæ from the Rocky Mountains and Upper California, with plate. V. 104-111.

1845-1850. Plantæ Lindheimerianæ. By George Engelmann and Asa Gray. V. 210-264; VI. 141-233.

_Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences_--

1862. Plants from Texas by S. B. Buckley. 161-168; 332-337.

1863. Plants collected by Hall & Harbour and C. C. Parry. 55-80.

1863. Synopsis of the species Hosackia. 346-352.

1879. On the genus Garberia. 379-380.

1884. On the movement of the Andrœcium in Sunflowers. 287-288.

3. PAPERS IN REPORTS OF UNITED STATES SURVEYS.

1855. Report on collections made by Capt. Gunnison in 1853, and by Lieut. Beckwith in 1854. Pacific R. R. Surveys, II. 115-132, with ten plates.

1855. Report on the Expedition [under Capt. John Pope]. By John Torrey and Asa Gray. Pacific R. R. Surveys, II. 157-178, with ten plates.

1857. List of plants collected in Japan by S. W. Williams and Dr. J. Morrow in the Expedition to the China Seas and Japan under Commodore M. C. Perry. II. 303-329.

1857. Report of the Expedition [under Lieut. A. W. Whipple]. By John Torrey. (The Compositæ, Plantaginaceæ, Orobanchaceæ, Scrophulariaceæ, and Bignoniaceæ, by A. Gray). Pacific R. R. Surveys, IV. 95-115, 117-122, with eight plates.

1857. Catalogue of the plants collected on the Expedition under Lieut. Williamson and Lieut. Abbot. Pacific R. R. Surveys, VI. 72-76-87, with six plates.

1859. Report of the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey made by W. H. Emory. Pp. 34, 73-107, 110-121, 154, 172-175, with five plates.

1860. Catalogue of plants collected East of the Rocky Mountains. Pacific R. R. Surveys, XII. part 2, 40-49, with three plates.

1860. Report upon the Colorado River of the West, explored in 1857 and 1858 by Lieut. Joseph C. Ives. Part IV. Botany; orders preceding Verbenaceæ, excepting Cactaceæ, pp. 1-20.

1880. Botany of the Black Hills of Dacota. Report of H. Newton and W. P. Jenney. U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Survey, Rocky Mountain region, 529-537.

1881. The vegetation of the Rocky Mountain region and a comparison with that of other parts of the world. By A. Gray and J. D. Hooker. Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Survey of the Territories, VI. 1-77.

4. CONTRIBUTIONS TO PERIODICALS.

_North American Review_--

1844. The Longevity of Trees. July. 189-238.

1845. The Chemistry of Vegetation. January. 3-42.

1846. Scientific results of the Exploring Expedition. July. 211-226.

_American Journal of Science_--

1834. A sketch of the Mineralogy of a portion of Jefferson and St. Lawrence Counties (N. Y.), by Drs. J. B. Crawe of Watertown and A. Gray of Utica (N. Y.). XXV. 346-350.

1837. Review of Lindley’s Natural System of Botany. XXXII. 292-303.

1840. Review of De Candolle’s Prodromus. XXXIX. 168.

1840. Siebold’s Flora of Japan. XXXIX. 175.

1841. Notices of European Herbaria, particularly those most interesting to the North American Botanist. XL. 1-18. Notice of the Botanical Writings of C. S. Rafinesque. XL. 221-241.

1842. Notes of a botanical excursion to the mountains of North Carolina, etc., with some remarks on the Botany of the higher Alleghany Mountains. XLII. 1-49.

1846. Analogy between the Flora of Japan and that of the United States. II. ii. 135-136.

1849. Notice of Dr. Hooker’s Flora Antarctica. II. viii. 161-180.

1853. On some new genera and species of Nyctaginaceæ. II. xv. 259-263; 319-324.

1854. Introductory Essay, in Dr. Hooker’s Flora of New Zealand, vol. I. II. xvii. 241-252; 334-350.

1854. On the age of the large tree recently felled in California. II. xvii. 440-443.

1855. The Smithsonian Institution. II. xx. 1-21.

1856. Statistics of the Flora of the Northern United States. II. xxii., 204-232; xxiii. 62-84; 369-403.

1856. De Candolle’s Géographie Botanique Raisonnée. II. xxii. 429.

1859. Obituary Notice of Brown and Humboldt. II. xxviii. 161-165.

1860. Review of Darwin’s Theory on the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection. II. xxix. 153-184; Darwiniana, pp. 9-61.

1860. Design versus Necessity. II. xxx. 226-239; Darwiniana, pp. 62-86.

1862. Enumeration of Rocky Mountain Plants. II. xxxiii. 237-243; 404-411; II. xxxv. 249-253; 335-341.

1862. Hooker’s Outlines of the Distribution of Arctic Plants, etc. II. xxxiv. 144.

1863. Review of De Candolle’s “Species as to Variation, Geographical Distribution and Succession.” II. xxxv. 431; Darwiniana, pp. 178-204.

1864. On Scientific Nomenclature. II. xxxvii. 278-281.

1865. Darwin’s Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants. II. xl. 273; xli. 125.

1868. Remarks on the Laws of Botanical Nomenclature. II. xlvi. 74-77.

1872. Sequoia and its history; the relations of North American to Northeast Asian and to Tertiary Vegetation. III. iv. 282-298; (Darwiniana, pp. 205-235; also, Proc. American Association for the Advancement of Science, with Corrections and Appendix. XXI. 1-31).

1875. Do Varieties wear out or tend to wear out? III. ix. 109-114.

1875. Bentham on the Recent Progress and Present State of Systematic Botany. III. ix. 288-294; 346-355.

1875. Æstivation and its Terminology. III. x. 339-344.

1877. Notice of Darwin on the “Effects of Cross and Self Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom.” III. xiii. 125-141.

1877. Notes on the History of Helianthus tuberosus. III. xiii. 347-352; xiv. 428-429.

1878. Forest Geography and Archæology. III. xvi. 85-94; 183-196.

1878. De Candolle’s New Monographs. III. xvi. 325; xxxiv., 490.

1878. Shortia galacifolia rediscovered. III. xvi. 483-485.

1879. Pertinacity and Predominance of Weeds. III. xviii. 161-167.

1880. De Candolle’s Phytography. III. xx. 150, 241.

1881. C. Darwin and F. Darwin, “Power of Movement in Plants.” III. xxi. 245.

1882. Remarks concerning the flora of North America. III. xxiv. 321-331.

1883. Review of De Candolle’s Origin of Cultivated Plants. III. xxv. 241-255; 370-379; xxvi. 128-138.

1883. Points in Botanical Nomenclature; a review of De Candolle’s “Nouvelles Remarques sur la Nomenclature Botanique.” III. xxvi. 417-437.

1884. Gender of Names of Varieties. III. xxvii. 396-398.

1884. Characteristics of the North American flora. III. xxviii. 323-340.

NOTE. During the fifty and more years Dr. Gray was a contributor to the “American Journal of Science,” in addition to the foregoing articles, he printed in its pages 380 communications, devoted chiefly to critical reviews of works on botany and kindred subjects, and to biographical sketches of botanists. In 1888 appeared, as an appendix to Volume XXXVI., a list of 42 pages of the writings of Asa Gray, chronologically arranged. This list, with an index, has been issued in separate form. In addition to the above, Dr. Gray contributed to the “Nation” from 1868 to November, 1887; and many articles to the following journals and magazines: The New York Semi-Weekly Tribune; The American Agriculturist; Hooker’s Journal of Botany; The London Journal of Botany; Journal of the Linnæan Society; Gardener’s Chronicle; American Naturalist; Science; The New York Independent; The Botanical Gazette; The Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club; The American Florist; The Examiner; The New Englander; The Atlantic; The Literary World; The Contemporary Review; The Andover Review; The Harvard College Literary Bulletin.

One publication, and that the earliest, cannot be included in any of the above divisions. It was entitled “A Catalogue of the indigenous Flowering and Filicoid Plants growing within 20 miles of Bridgewater, Oneida Co., New York.” It is signed A. Gray, M. D., January 1, 1833, and constitutes pp. 57-65 of (N. Y.) Senate Document, No. 70.

C. DEGREES CONFERRED ON ASA GRAY.

1831. College of Medicine and Surgery, Fairfield, N. Y. M. D. 1844. Harvard College. M. A. 1860. Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y. LL. D. 1875. Harvard University. LL. D. 1884. McGill College, Montreal, Canada. LL. D. 1887. University of Michigan. LL. D. 1887. Cambridge University, England. D. S. 1887. University of Oxford, England. D. C. L. 1887. University of Edinburgh, Scotland. LL. D.

D. SOCIETIES OF WHICH DR. GRAY WAS A MEMBER.

1835. Cæsarea Leopoldino-Carolinæ Academiæ Naturæ Curiosorum Vratislaviensis, Breslau. Mem.

1836. Die Königliche Botanische Gesellschaft in Regensburg. Mem.

1836. Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Corresp. Mem.

1837. Boston Society of Natural History. Corresp. Mem. and Hon. Mem.

1841. American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Fellow.

1846. Acad. Literarum et Scientiarum Regia Boica, Munich. Hon. and Corresp. Mem.

1847. Massachusetts Hort. Society. Corresp. Mem.

1847. Essex Co. Massachusetts Natural Hist. Soc. Corresp. Mem.

1848. Regia Scientiarum Societas, Upsal. Mem.

1848. Am. Philosophical Society, Philadelphia. Mem.

1849. Die Pollichia, Ein Naturwissenchaftliche Verein der Bayerischen Pfalz. Mem.

1849. Senkenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft zu Frankfort-am-Main. Mem.

1850. Linnæan Soc. of London. Foreign Mem.

1850. Société de Physique et d’Histoire Naturelle de Genève. Hon. Mem.

1851. Vereeniging voor de Flora van Nederland. Corresp. Mem.

1852. British Assoc. for the Advancement of Science. Corresp. Mem.

1852. Lyceum of Natural History, New York. Hon. Mem.

1852. Der Naturwissenschaftliche Verein in Hamburg. Hon. Mem.

1853. Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. Hon. Mem.

1853. Polk Co. Agricultural Society, Iowa. Mem.

1854. Kaiserlich Königliche Geologische Reichsanstalt, Vienna. Corresp. Mem.

1854. Société Impériale des Sciences Naturelles de Cherbourg. Corresp. Mem.

1855. Regia Scientiarum Academia Borussica. Corresp. Mem.

1857. California Academy of Natural Sciences. Hon. Mem.

1857. Société de Botanique de Leyden. Corresp. Mem.

1858. Dublin University Zoological and Botanical Association. Corresp. Mem.

1858. Historical Society of Tennessee. Hon. Mem.

1859. Regia Scientiarum Academia Sverica, Stockholm. Foreign Mem.

1859. Imperial Society of Botany, Moscow. Mem.

1859. Russian Society of Horticulture, St. Petersburg. Mem.

1860. Cleaveland Natural History Soc. of Bowdoin College (Maine). Hon. Mem.

1861. Botanical Society of Canada. Hon. Mem.

1862. Imperial Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg. Corresp. Mem.

1863. Natural History Society of Dublin (union with Dublin University Nat. Sci. Association). Corresp. Mem.

1863. National Academy of Sciences of the United States. Mem.

1865. K. K. Zoologisch-Botanische Gesellschaft in Wien. Mem.

1866. Am. Microscopical Society of the City of New York. Hon. Mem.

1866. Royal Botanical Society of Edinburgh. Hon. Fellow.

1867. National Academy of Sciences of the United States. Hon. Mem.

1867. Buffalo Historical Society. Corresp. Mem.

1868. Die Königliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. Corresp. Mem.

1868. Société Impériale Académique de Cherbourg. Corresp. Mem.

1871. Indianapolis Academy of Sciences. Hon. Mem.

1873. Minnesota Academy of Natural Sciences, Minneapolis. Hon. Mem.

1873. The Royal Society, London. Foreign Mem.

1875. Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. Hon. Mem.

1876. Worcester Co. Horticultural Society. Hon. Mem.

1877. Société Royale de Botanique de Belgique. Assoc. Mem.

1877. Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences, Iowa. Hon. Mem.

1878. Institut de France, Académie des Sciences. Corresp. Mem.

1879. Royal Society of Edinburgh. Mem.

1880. The Cambridge (England) Philosophical Society. Hon. Mem.

1884. Der Botanische Verein der Provinz Brandenbourg. Hon. Mem.

1884. Die Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft, Berlin. Hon. Mem.

1885. The Philosophical Society of Glasgow. Hon. Mem.

1885. Natural History Society of Montreal. Hon. Mem.

1885. New Zealand Institute. Hon. Mem.

1885. Royal Horticultural Society, London. Hon. Mem.

1886. Northwestern Literary and Historical Society, Sioux City. Hon. Mem.

1886. American Society of Naturalists. Hon. Mem.

1886. Oneida Co. Horticultural Society at Utica, N. Y. Corresp. Mem.

1886. Asa Gray Botanical Club, Utica, N. Y. Mem.

1886. Torrey Botanical Club, Columbia College, New York. Hon. Mem.

1887. La Société Botanique de Copenhague. Hon. Mem.

1887. Manchester (England) Literary and Philosophical Society. Hon. Mem.

1887. The Essex Institute, Salem, Mass. Hon. Mem.

INDEX.

Abercrombie, John, 103.

Abert, 356.

Abies, 672.

Abolition, 296.

Accident, Railroad, 690.

Accidents, 377, 737.

Acland, Sir Henry, 722, 737, 803.

Acland, Sir Thomas, 806.

Aconitum reclinatum, 689.

Acrolasia, 223.

Acton, Lord, 802.

Adams, C. F., 636, 641, 733.

Adelsburg, Fête at Grotto of, 212, 213.

Agassiz, L., 179, 343-346, 349, 410, 432, 450, 455.

Agassiz, A., 719, 747, 600.

Agriculture, Mass. Society for Promotion of, 817.

Albro, J. A., 296, 328, 395.

Alleghanies, Botany of Southern, 280.

Allen, A. V. G., 779, 789.

Alpine Plants, 229; what they are, 783.

Alvord, Col. and Mrs., 769, 770.

American Academy, 286, 397, 405, 700; corresponding secretary of, 355; president, 641.

American Association, 698, 735, 756; president, 619, 628.

“American Journal of Science,” 19, 32.

Amici, G. B., 200, 201.

Ancestry, 1, 2, 3.

Andersson, J. N., 545.

Anemone Hudsonica, 46.

Ann Arbor, 79, 80.

Antarctic Expedition, 130, 162.

Anthephora, 451, 453.

“Antiquity of Man, The,” 503, 504.

Architecture, 806.

Arenaria brevifolia, 652.

Argyle, 501.

Arnold, Matthew, 747, 748.

Arnott, G. A. W., 22, 96, 129, 130.

Arthur, J. C., 755.

Arthur, J. C., and others, letter to, 777.

Assassination of Lincoln, 534.

Asters, 279, 696, 697, 699, 701, 713-716, 726, 792.

Astilbe, 428.

Audubon, 790.

Austin, C. F., 555.

Autobiography, 1.

Avery, C., 9, 10, 18.

Avery, E., 7, 8, 9.

Azalea, 315.

Babington, C., 713.

Backhouse, 722.

Bacon, 743, 748, 749.

Bailey, J. W., 68, 128, 129.

Bailey, W. W., 682.

Baird, S. F., 343, 811.

Baker, 592, 702.

Balfour, Arthur J., 693.

Balfour, I. Bayley, 702, 803.

Balfour, J. H., 22, 101.

Ball, J., 713, 744, 753, 757, 784, 785, 788.

Banks’ herbarium, 148.

Barber, 770.

Barbey, 720.

Bartlett’s School, 16, 18, 19, 29, 37, 49.

Bateman, 131.

Bates, 507.

Bauer, F., 22, 116, 128, 129.

Beaumont, J. F., 392, 394.

Beck, L. C., 15, 16, 39, 40.

Beck’s Flora, 39.

Bell, Sir C., 102, 131.

Bennett, J. J., 22, 110, 137, 371, 592, 596, 646.

Bentham, George, references to, 22, 114, 123, 126, 128, 132, 143, 152, 376, 378, 418, 427, 486, 547, 559, 566, 592, 611, 685, 702, 712, 720, 733, 741, 743, 758, 759, 760, 797, 814.

---- Letters to, 267, 365, 382, 427, 434, 437, 447, 547, 552, 559, 600, 691, 741, 745.

Bentham, Lady, 187, 188.

Bequest, 816.

Berlandier, J. L., 173; plants of, 415.

Berlin, Royal Herbarium, 268.

Berlin Botanic Garden, 269.

Bernard de Jussieu, 177.

Beverly Farms, 739.

Biasoletto, 25, 209.

Bidwell, J., 771.

Big Trees, 412.

Bigelow, Jacob, 284, 288, 558, 685.

Bignonia capreolata (Tendrils), 548.

Birth, 3-5.

Birth-day, 70th, 710; 75th, 776.

Blachford, Lord, 654, 664, 665, 693, 749, 806.

Blume, C. L., 376.

Boat-race, International, 591, 594.

Boissier, E., 24, 26, 167, 374, 375, 418, 589, 680, 720, 781.

Bolander’s collection, 559.

Bonafous, 493.

Bond, G., 500.

Boott, F., M. D., 22, 91, 110, 123, 132, 149, 370, 473, 478, 511, 522.

---- Carices, 91, 171.

Bornet, 644.

Botanic Garden, Cambridge, 28, 290, 291, 297, 298, 304, 325, 326, 357, 445. Antibes, 569, 572. Chiswick, 116, 270. Edinburgh, 101, 105. Geneva, 270. Ghent, 372. Glasgow, 89. Hamburg, 269. Jardin des Plantes, 23, 24, 157, 158, 381. Kew, 116, 371, 377, 384. Leyden, 376. Liverpool, 88. Madrid, 701. Medical Botanic Garden, Paris, 24. Missouri, 752, 753, 761. Montpellier, 186, 187. Munich, 233, 240. Oxford, 379. Padua, 204, 718. Poppelsdorf, 373. Regent’s Park, 121. Schönberg, 269. Schönbrunn, 218. Tharand Forst-Academie, 589. Valencia, 707. Vienna, 215, 795.

“Botanical Text-Book,” 28, 368.

Botany, dawning of taste for, 14.

Botany, Geographical. See Geographical Botany.

Botanical Society, Royal, of Regensburg, 56.

Botteri, M., 764.

Bourier, 700.

Bowen, F., 561.

Bowerbank, J. S., 137, 138.

Brace, C. L., letters to, 458, 460, 461, 462; references to, 371, 624.

Brace, J. P., 348.

Brackenridge’s Filices, 404, 423.

Brandegee, T. S., 671, 672.

Braun, A., 374, 383.

Breeding, cross. See Fertilization.

Brewer, W. H., 532, 636.

Brewster, Sir David, 104.

Brigham, C. 769.

British Association, 387, 592, 722, 756, 759, 791, 807.

British Museum, 22, 110, 132, 146, 153, 379, 387, 592.

Britton, N. L., letter to, 813.

Brongniart, A. T., 23, 174, 382, 418, 611.

Brooks, Phillips, 805.

Brougham, Lord, 165.

Brown, R., 22, 110, 112, 115, 120, 124, 128, 132, 141, 151, 175, 371, 376, 378, 387, 418, 442, 443, 449, 451, 463, 498.

Browne, W., 731, 756.

Browning, 713.

Bryce, 804.

Buckle, 613.

Buckley, S. B., 311.

Bunbury, 788.

Buonaparte, C., 179.

Burgess, E., 668.

Bury, Lady Charlotte, 120, 121, 137.

Butler, B. F., 746, 748.

Cairnes, 491.

California, journey to, 627, 670, 761.

Calluna vulgaris, 468.

Cambridge, Mass., appointment at, 27. call to, 283-286. removal to, 287.

Cambridge University, England, degree at, 800.

Canby, W. M., Letters to, 556, 641, 648, 651, 682, 687, 779; references to, 557, 633, 686.

Canby and Redfield, letters to, 712, 723.

Canterbury, Archbishop of, 804.

Carex, Boott’s collection of, 91, 92.

Carey, John, 20, 26, 33, 322, 354, 407, 697.

Carlyle, 742.

Carpenter, 740.

Carruthers, W., 592.

Caruel, T., 607.

Catesby, plants of, 146.

Cathedrals, 806.

Cats, 436.

Cavendish, 451.

Censorship of the press (Vienna), 216.

“Ceratophyllaceæ, Remarks on,” 20.

Ceratophyllum, 691.

Cereus giganteus, 408.

Chalmers, 102.

Channing, E. T., 27.

Chapman, A. W., 540, 545, 650.

Chapmannia, 147.

“Characteristics of the North American Flora,” 756.

Chevreuil, 797.

Chiswick Gardens, 116.

Christison, Sir R., 104.

Christy, W., 119.

Church, R. W., letters to, 394, 403, 429, 444, 463, 518, 523, 533, 543, 560, 563, 570, 591, 595, 597, 601, 608, 612, 617, 628, 653, 662, 664, 678, 693, 697, 703, 724, 734, 743, 747; references to, 379, 394, 565, 594, 804.

---- Letter from, to Mrs. Gray, 750.

Cinchona officinalis, 551.

Claytonia Virginica, 14.

Clayville, 4.

Cleveland, Ohio, 71.

Clift, W., 112.

Climbing plants, 537, 539, 548, 549.

Clinton, Grammar School, 7, 8.

Clinton, G. W., 546.

Clive, Mrs. Archer, 376.

Clough, A. H., 394, 395, 396.

Cobbe, Miss F. P., 638.

Cogniaux, 669.

Cohn, 676.

Colenso, 491.

Coleridge, Lord, 748, 754.

Collectors, 272, 341. See, also, Berlandier, Bolander, Buckley, Coulter, Crawe, Diell, Douglas, Drummond, Eschscholtz, Fendler, Frémont, Geyer, Goldie, Gregg, Hugel, Kneiskern, Lindheimer, Michaux, Nuttall, Palmer, Parry, Pringle, Pursh, Rugel, Sartwell, Thurber, Wislizenus, Wright.

College of Surgeons, 117.

Collinson, Peter, 370.

Commonwealth (Vegetable), 496.

Compass plant, 400, 401.

Compositæ, 26, 27.

Congdon, J. W., 682.

Congreve, R., 379.

Coniferæ, 674, 675.

Constable, J., 26.

Cooke, J. P., 527.

Cooper, Sir Astley, 113, 119.

Cooper, Bransby, 113.

Cooper, Elwood, Cal., 768.

Cope, 624.

Copyrights, 816.

Corda, A. C. J., 130, 221.

Corema, 775, 776.

Cosson, E., 611, 709, 713, 715.

Coulter’s collection, 328.

Coulter, T., 784, 785.

Cowles, 689.

Crewe, J. B., 18, 19, 32, 43.

Creighton, 789.

Cross Fertilization. See Fertilization.

Curtis, M. A., 652.

Cusick, W., 726.

“Cyperaceæ, North American Gramineæ and,” 19, 45, 46.

“Cyperaceæ of North America,” 60.

Cypress knees, 416, 421.

Cypresses of Chapultepec, 763.

Dale, T., 141.

Dalton, 808.

Dana, J. D., letters to, 424, 430, 521, 626, 785; references to, 337, 338, 430, 459.

Dana, R. H., Sr., 296.

Darbya, 686, 687.

Darlington, William, 370, 423, 499, 500.

Darlingtonia, 648, 649.

Darwin, Charles, letters to, 456, 472, 484, 496, 501, 522, 536, 548, 553, 561, 599, 615, 623, 631, 645, 664, 668, 676; references to, 117, 380, 447, 454, 455, 459, 463, 498, 509, 528, 550, 559, 565, 566, 594, 626, 642, 695, 714, 722, 732, 734, 751, 815.

---- Letter to Asa Gray, 557.

“Darwin, Charles, Life of,” by A. Gray, 646.

Darwin, Mrs., 800.

Darwin, George, 507, 759.

“Darwiniana,” 655, 656, 662.

Darwinism. See Evolution.

Daubeny, C., 332, 379.

Dawson, Sir William, 734, 740.

Death, 815.

De Bary, 807.

Decaisne, J., 23, 157, 161, 162, 168, 174, 381, 382, 611, 683, 687, 709, 712, 721, 733, 734.

De Candolle, Auguste Pyramus, 26, 47, 267, 281, 332, 374, 498; bust of, 727.

De Candolle, Alphonse, letters to, 232, 276, 377, 380, 396, 409, 413, 419, 426, 451, 481, 497, 519, 526, 552, 566, 587, 592, 606, 624, 635, 639, 642, 669, 680, 684, 692, 694, 699, 702, 712, 714, 717, 727, 733, 783, 793; references to, 26, 267, 375, 448, 702, 712, 718, 719, 720, 724, 746, 781, 785, 796.

De Candolle, Casimir, 451, 566, 719.

Degree, medical, 14.

Degrees at, Cambridge, England, 800; Edinburgh, 806; Oxford, 801.

Delessert, Benjamin, 24, 166, 169, 171.

Delessert, François, 382.

Delessert Herbarium, 720.

Delile, A. R., 24, 186, 187.

De Morgan, 759.

Derby, Lord, 805.

“Descent of Man,” Darwin, 615.

Desfontaines Herbarium, 23.

Desfontaines plants, 176.

Design in Nature, 485, 489, 498, 502, 508, 512, 638, 648, 656, 658, 659.

Detroit, 73.

Development Theory. See Evolution.

De Vriese, W. H., 376.

Dewey, Chester, 57.

Dextrorsum, 699.

Diamorpha pusilla, 652, 653.

Diell, 54, 58.

Dionœa, 556, 557, 561, 633, 642, 649.

Distribution of Plants. See Geographical Botany.

Dogs, 435, 436, 599, 676-678.

Don, David, 110, 137.

Douglas, David, 90, 92, 123, 279.

Douglass, Professor, 78.

Downing, Major Jack, 45.

Drake, Miss, 131.

Drosera rotundifolia, 510, 556, 557, 633, 641.

Drummond’s Louisiana plants, 173, 279.

Duby, J. E., 263.

Ducie, Lord, 713, 810.

Duff-Gordon, Lady, 582.

Dufferin, Lord, 737.

Dunal, M. F., 24, 187.

Durham University, 109.

Dyer, W. Thisleton, 734, 762.

Early Undertakings, 29-84.

Eaton, Amos, 14, 40.

Eaton, D. C., letters to, 438, 470; receives Garber’s plants, 702.

Eaton’s Manual of Botany, 14, 40.

“Ecce Homo,” 543.

Edinburgh, visit to (1839), 97-105.

Education, 5-8.

Education, Botany, in liberal, 325.

Egypt, 572-586; plants in, 575, 576; medical practice in, 582.

Ehrenberg, C. G., 26, 269.

Eichler, A. W., 795.

“Elements of Botany,” 20, 27, 32, 54.

“Elements of Botany,” 1887, 792.

Eliot, S., 28.

Eliot, C. W., 526; letters to, 620, 634.

Ellimia, 171.

Elwes, H. J., 810.

Embryo of Pinus, 151.

Emerson, G. B., 288, 292.

Emory, 356.

Endlicher, S. L., 25, 210, 215, 795.

Engelmann, G., letters to, 281, 291, 297, 305, 312, 340, 351, 355, 360, 373, 383, 391, 399, 404, 417, 446, 452, 465, 471, 493, 514, 530, 545, 551, 558, 589, 670, 680, 686, 696, 715, 725; references to, 272, 663, 686, 729, 746, 753, 782.

---- Obituary notice, 753.

---- Herbarium, 753.

Engelmann, G., Jr., 772.

“Epistolæ Linneano-Jussieuanæ,” 410.

Erie Canal opening, 9.

Eriogoneæ, 600, 601.

Eschscholtz, 152.

“Essays and Reviews,” 464.

Europe, journeys to: First, 21, 85, 271; second, 369-388; third, 414-420; fourth, 565-599; fifth, 701-724; sixth, 792-810.

European politics, 604, 606, 608.

Evolution, 424, 428, 430, 450, 455, 489, 497, 504, 508, 510, 528, 626, 637, 666, 695.

Evolution, Agassiz’s views of, in 1847, 345.

Exhibition, London, 1851, 379, 384.

Exploring Expedition, U. S., 21, 61, 64, 66, 359, 366, 376, 398, 409, 484, 623.

---- North Pacific, 435.

Fairchild, 666, 667.

Fairfield Academy, 8.

Fairfield Medical College, 12, 29.

Faraday, 114.

Farlow, W. G., 617, 625, 640, 762, 765, 766, 770.

Farnsworth, Chancellor, 78.

Farrar, Canon, 780.

Father of Asa Gray, 2, 4, 5, 334.

Felton, C. C., 479.

Fendler, A., 341, 343, 351, 355, 360, 361, 426, 447, 515, 531, 540, 650.

Fendlera, 391.

Fenzl, E., 25, 218, 222, 795.

Ferns, 402.

Fertilization, 425, 484, 485, 493, 505, 508, 509, 539, 664, 695.

Fink, 766.

First Book, 20, 32, 54.

First contribution to American Journal of Science, 19, 32.

“First Lessons in Botany,” 414, 418, 429, 444.

First Plant determined, 14.

Fischer, 74.

Fisher, G. P., 696.

Fisher Professorship, 27.

Flax spinning introduced, 5.

Flora, Beck’s, 39.

Flora of California, 636, 641, 643, 694.

Flora or Fauna, objects of, 657.

Flower, Sir W. H., 595, 722, 754.

Folwell, N. W., 35.

Forbes, H. O., 780.

Forbes, James, 99, 103, 413.

Forestry, 276.

Forster, E., 134, 139, 143.

Fouquiera, 400, 401, 419.

Fox, Miss, 755.

Franco-German War, 606, 608, 609, 612.

Fraser, J., 134, 135.

Fraser, Bishop, 560, 602.

Freeman, 725.

Fremantle, 806.

Frémont Expedition, 294, 297, 327.

Fresenius, J. B. G. W., 373.

Froude, 742.

Fry, Sir E., Letters to, 729, 738, 746, 754, 779, 789, 810.

Galileo, 743.

Garber’s Porto Rico Collection, 702.

Garwood, Rev. Mr., 123.

Gaudichaud, 24, 158, 162, 383.

Gaura Lindheimeri, 313.

Gay, Jacques, 24, 159, 171, 381, 383, 418.

“Genera Illustrata,” 340, 344, 347, 353, 355, 357, 361, 363.

Geographical Botany, 46, 276, 420, 424, 427, 434, 445, 447, 449, 775.

“Géographie Botanique,” De Candolle, A., 410, 419.

Geum triflorum, 46.

Geyer, C., 298.

Gilbert, J. H., 806.

Gilman, D. C., 695.

Gladstone, 444, 536, 563, 604, 736, 737, 743, 790, 804.

Gladstone, Miss, 804.

Glasgow, visit to (1839), 89-95.

Godet, C. H., 375, 592.

Goldie, J., 785.

Goodale, G. L., 635, 640, 728, 787.

Gould, A. A., 441.

Graham, Col., 390.

Graham, R., 22, 98, 100, 101, 105.

“Gramineæ and Cyperaceæ, North American,” 19, 45, 46.

Granville, Lord, 804.

Grasses, Hooker’s. 92.

Gray, Asa, Estimate of, by R. W. Church, 750.

Gray, J. E., 112, 114, 596.

Gray, J. L., 358.

Gray, Miss A. A., letter to, 710.

Gray, Mrs. Asa, letters to, 349, 659.

Gray, Moses, 2, 4, 5, 334; letters to, 47, 49, 53, 61, 67, 83, 270, 313.

Gray, Mrs. (mother of Asa), letters to, 48, 84.

Gray, Family Reunion, 786.

Gray Herbarium, 287, 515, 519, 523, 525, 527, 529, 535, 816.

Grayia, 93, 629.

Gray’s Peak, 627, 632.

Greene, B. D., 17, 27, 283, 288.

Greene, Copley, 17.

Gregg, Josiah, 356.

Greville, R., 22, 98, 101, 105, 106, 132.

Grisebach, H. R. A., 224, 383, 516, 532, 540, 541, 550.

Grisebach’s manuscripts, 495.

Gronovian plants, 150.

Guillemin, 24.

Guiteau, Trial of, 730.

Guthrie, Rev. Dr., 102.

Guyot, A., 459, 463.

Hadley, J., Prof., 10, 12, 15, 18, 41, 42.

Hadley, Prof. J., Junior, 13.

Haenke’s plants, 795.

Hakim-Pacha, 583.

Hamilton College, 10, 18, 42, 45.

Hanbury, 570, 571.

Harcourt, Colonel, 803.

Harkness, Dr., 769.

Harris, T. W., 398, 420.

Hartweg, T., 150.

Harvard Botanic Garden, 285, 290, 291, 299; House, 314, 327.

Harvard College, appointment, 27.

Harvard College, called to, 283-286.

Harvard College, quarter-millennial, 789.

Harvey, W. H., 363, 376, 547.

Hauer, 795.

Haughton, Prof., 736.

Hayden, Dr., 669, 710.

Heer, O., 508, 521, 528.

Helianthus tuberosus, 398.

Henry, Joseph, 15, 30, 31, 78, 349, 403, 559, 623, 639, 681, 684.

Heuchera hispida and pubescens, 307.

Herbariums-- Bank’s, 132, 148. Boissier, Geneva, 374, 720. British Museum, 110, 132, 146, 151, 387. Cosson, 715. De Candolle, 18, 267, 374, 718, 724. Delessert, 720. Desfontaines and Poiret, 23, 176. Engelmann, 753. Fraser, 135, 136. Gronovian, 150. Humboldt, 173. Jardin des Plantes, Musée du, 172, 382, 709, 715, 799. Joad, 752. Jussieu, 23, 173, 175, 709. Kew, 377, 378, 565, 701, 791. Kunth, 269. Labilliardière, 173. Lagasca, 720. Lamarck, 173, 716, 792. Lambert, 111, 128. Lehmann, 269. Lindley, 715. Linnæan, 22, 149, 150. Madrid, 701, 720. Mercier, 173. Michaux, 23, 162, 164, 172, 178, 681. Mill, 659. Nuttall, 193, 697. Oxford, 379. Poiret, 173. Pursh, 22, 111, 128, 136, 148, 152, 174. Pylaie, de la, 173. Requien, 185. Richard, 172, 173, 178. Royal Herbarium, Berlin, at Schönberg, 269. Sims, 151. Schultz, 715. Short, 499. Torrey, 641. Ventenat, 178. Vienna, 210, 214, 223, 795. Walter, 130, 134, 136, 174. Webb, 157, 173. Willdenow, 268, 392, 709, 716.

Heterogeny, 505.

Heterogone, 664.

“Historicus,” 506, 513.

Hodge, Prof. Charles, 646.

Hollister, Col., 768.

Holmes, O. W., 694, 725.

Holton, I. F., 415, 421.

Home Rule, 790.

Hooker, W. J., letters to, 50, 57, 268, 273, 277, 282, 289, 298, 304, 306, 324,334, 350, 357, 364, 367, 392, 401, 408, 411, 415, 421, 433, 440, 449, 498, 531; references to, 21, 22, 33, 89-92, 103, 110, 130, 370, 378, 381, 418, 437, 442, 499, 541, 542.

---- work with (1838), 90, 92, 93.

Hooker, J. D., letters to, 317, 336, 455, 702, 707, 718, 728, 734, 742, 744, 751, 758, 781, 785, 790, 794, 811; references to, 22, 92, 110, 115, 119, 123, 125, 130, 270, 307, 380, 413, 417, 442, 449, 468, 478, 489, 512, 520, 532, 541, 565, 566, 592, 666, 669, 670, 671, 675, 678, 679, 702, 712, 714, 717, 722, 723, 752, 792, 806, 810.

Hope, Prof., 99.

Horner, 613.

Horsfield, T., 119.

Houghton, 73, 76.

“How Plants Behave,” 624.

“How Plants Grow,” 438, 444.

Howard, Joseph, 3.

Howland, J., letters to, 590, 593.

Hudsonia montana, 310.

Huet, 426.

Hügel, Baron, 219.

Hughes, T., 608.

Humboldt’s herbarium, 173.

Hunneman, J., 149.

Hunter, John, 117.

Huxley, T. H., 458, 504, 505.

Hyams, M. E., 681, 682, 683, 692.

Hyatt, A., 624.

Hybrids, 459.

Hybridism, 458.

Hymenophyllum ciliatum, 392.

Iliad, Bryant’s, 613.

Imaun, Joseph, 584.

Impatiens, 508.

Incas, 502.

Inheritance, 561.

Insectivorous plants, 510, 556, 557, 561, 633, 641, 645, 647, 649.

Irving, Washington, 808.

J. S. M., Letter to, 778.

Jacquin, Baron, 216, 217, 795.

James, Mrs. T. P., Letter to, 500.

James, T. P., 423.

Jameson, R., 100.

Japan Flora, 445, 447, 450, 452.

Japanese plants, 315.

Jardin des Plantes, 23, 24, 157, 161, 178,381, 709, 715, 792.

Jellett, 802.

Jenyns, Soame, 321.

Joad Herbarium, 752.

Johnston, J. T. W., 108.

Journal of Mrs. Gray, 309, 380, 689.

Journal in Europe (1838-39), 85, 266.

Jussieu, Adrien de, 23, 157, 158, 177, 366, 381, 382, 400, 402, 411, 500.

Jussieu’s herbarium, 709.

Kennedy, G., 517.

Kew, 22, 116, 370, 383, 418, 542, 592, 701, 702, 710, 715, 720, 722, 724, 792, 810.

Kingsley, Charles, 667.

Klotzsch, J. H., 26, 268, 269.

Knieskern, P. D., 90, 135, 289, 293.

Kohinoor, 386.

Körner, 795.

Kunth, K. S., 26, 173, 269.

Laboratory, 614.

Lagasca, F., 146; his plants, 720.

Lamarck’s Asters and Herbarium, 269, 709, 716, 792.

Lambert, A. B., 22, 111, 120, 128, 132, 137.

Langley, 812.

Lapham, I. A., 347, 401.

Lasègue, 24.

Lavallée, A., 713.

La Veta Pass, 672, 673.

Lawrence, Abbott, 379.

Le Conte, J. E., 18.

Lecture Room, 604, 614, 619.

Lectures, first course, 13, 16.

Lectures, first in Cambridge, 300-303, 325; Lowell Institute, 294, 314-316, 318, 324, 328, 330, 331, 339; Smithsonian, 403; Yale College, see Yale.

Lehmann, J. G. C., 20, 44, 56, 269.

Leitner, 790.

Lemmon, J. G., 675, 727.

Lenses, Jewel, 135.

Lesquereux, L., 360, 640.

Library, Botanical, at Cambridge, 694.

Liddell, Dean, 802.

Liddon, Canon, 802.

Lindheimer, F., 291, 298, 340, 343, 391.

Lindley, John, 22, 115, 127, 130, 131, 152, 379.

Lindley’s asters, 715.

Link, H. F., 26, 269.

Linnæus, 497, 498, 700.

Linnæus, Birthday Celebration, 236; portrait of, 545.

Linnæan Society, 22, 134.

Loddiges, 126, 127, 143.

London, Visit to (1839), 110-153.

Lookout Mountain, 650.

Loring, C. G., 393, 560.

Lowell, J. A., 293, 342, 354, 362, 368, 530, 534.

Lowell, John, 439.

Lowell, J. R., 714, 804.

Lowell Institute Lectures, 294, 314, 316, 318, 324, 328, 330, 339.

Lowell Lectures, Religion in, 725.

Lubbock, 731.

Lyceum of Natural History, New York, 20, 31, 37, 56, 63.

Lyell, 118, 129, 346, 384, 503, 732.

Malan, 265.

Mann, H., 545, 566, 570.

“Manual of Botany,” 33, 334, 346, 353, 355, 414, 433, 547.

Marcet, Prof., 588.

Marcon, J., 643.

Marriage, 358.

Martins, C. F., 569.

Martius, 25, 232, 240, 375, 514, 589.

Mary Queen of Scots, 96, 105.

Maskeleyne, 379.

Maspero, 802.

Masters, M. T., 592, 702.

Mather, Dr., 13.

Maurice, 755, 756.

Maximowicz, 680.

McDowell, General, 769.

McGuffey, C. J., 72.

Medical College, Fairfield, 12, 29.

“Melanthacearum Americæ Septentrionalis Revisio,” 20.

Melastomaceæ, 478.

Mellichamp, Dr. J. H., 647, 649.

Menzies, A., 23, 121, 126, 141.

Mexico, journey to, 761-773.

Michaux, F. A., 382, 500, 540, 692, 813.

Michaux’s Herbarium, 23, 162, 164, 172, 178.

Michigan, University of, 21, 76, 83, 270, 274, 282, 283; A. G., Professor at, 21.

Microscopy, 135, 137, 138, 147, 175.

Miers, J., 131.

Mill, J. S., 659.

Miller, plants of, 146.

Mineralogy, 13, 17, 19.

“Mineralogy of Jefferson and St. Lawrence Counties, N. Y.,” 19.

Miquel, F. A. W., 376.

Mirbel, G. F. B., 23, 165, 175, 179.

Mivart, 459.

Mocino, J. M., 782.

Moggridge, J. T., 571.

Mohl, Hugo von, 267.

“Monograph of North American Rhynchosporæ,” 19, 31, 60.

Montagne, J. F. C., 24, 164, 418.

Montpellier, 185-189, 569.

Moquin-Tandon, 400.

Morell, 479.

Morris, D., 762.

Moseley, 772.

Mother of Asa Gray, 3, 5.

“Movement in Plants, Power of,” Darwin, 714.

Mozley, 665.

Muhlenberg, H. L., 685.

Mulder, G. J., 328, 331.

Müller, J., 593, 625, 644, 720.

Müller, Max, 488, 489, 491.

Munich, 231-240.

Munich Botanic Garden, 233, 240.

Munro, 100.

Munro, W., 446.

Murfree, Miss M. N., 812.

Murillo, 705.

Murray, Miss, 416.

Museum, Botanical, at Cambridge, 440-442.

Muséum, Paris, herbarium of, 172.

Museum of Natural History, at Cambridge, 351.

Name of Asa, 5.

National Academy, 551.

Natural selection, 459, 461, 489, 497. See also Evolution.

Naudin, C., 382, 399, 434, 472.

Naville, E., 588, 719.

Nees von Esenbeck, 44, 130, 223, 716, 726.

“New or Rare Plants of State of New York,” 19.

Nicoll, W., 99, 101, 102, 105.

Noel, Baptist, 122, 133, 144.

Nomenclature, 305, 408, 427, 434, 448, 515, 521, 552, 607, 685, 699, 700, 744, 746, 813.

North, Christopher (Professor Wilson), 100, 104.

North, Miss, 810.

“North American Gramineæ and Cyperaceæ,” 19, 45, 46.

“North American Plants, Synopsis of,” 559.

North Carolina, journeys to, 26, 28, 280, 306, 663, 686, 757.

Nuttall, 92, 282, 326.

Nuttall’s herbarium, 697; plants, 278.

Nuttalia, 90.

Nymphæa flava, 790.

Oaks, W., 334-336, 672.

Oaks, 672.

Oliver, D., 512, 592, 617, 702, 810.

Olmsted, F. L., 371, 421.

“Orchids, Fertilization of,” Darwin, 480, 484, 486, 489, 509.

Orchis, pyramidalis, 481; spectabilis, 53, 481.

Oregon, collection of Wilkes’ Expedition, 622, 639.

Origin of Species, 455, 456, 457, 458, 472, 480, 485, 486, 498. See Evolution.

Orthodox Botany, 733.

Owen, 117, 459, 505, 510, 521.

Oxford University, 404.

Oxford, degree at, 801.

Packard, 623.

Padua, 204.

Paget, 802.

Palgrave, Sir Francis, 117, 118, 122.

Palmer’s Chihuahua collection, 782.

Palmer, E., 686.

Palmerston, 536, 540.

Pangenesis, 561.

Pardie, J., 100.

Paris, visit to (1839), 153-180.

Parish, S. B., 726, 767.

Parish collection, 726.

Park, Prof., 655, 656.

Parker, Judge, 494.

Parliament (1839), 139, 142.

Parry, C. C., 468, 628, 636.

Parry and Palmer’s “Mexican Compositæ,” 686.

Parsons, T., 507.

Pascal, 743.

Passion flower, 611.

Passiflora acerifolia, tendrils of, 611.

Pasteur, 511, 550.

Peabody, A. P., 656, 805.

Peabody Museum, Harvard, 543.

Peck, Prof., 326, 327.

Pedro, Dom, 659.

Peirce, Benjamin, 296, 328, 330.

Pentstemon, 391.

Penzig, O., 718.

Persoon, C. H., 336.

Petalanthera, 146.

Peters, T. M., 394.

Philadelphus, 428.

Philip, 209.

Photography, discovery of Daguerreotypes, 127; Talbotypes, 379.

Phyllotaxis, 505, 507.

Pickering, Charles, 337, 347.

Pickering, E. C., 744.

Pictet, 460, 519.

Pictures in Spain, 705.

Pinus monophylla, 674, 675; ponderosa, 674.

Planchon, J. E., 569.

Plantamour, 719.

“Plantæ Wrightianæ,” 389, 391, 392, 393, 406.

Plants, introduced, 313, 325.

Platanthera flava, 509.

Plukenet, plants of, 146, 150.

Podophyllum Emodi, 175.

Poiret plants, 176.

Politics, American, 755.

Pollen tubes, 325.

Pope, Gen., 770.

Pöppig, E. F., 267.

Porto Rico collection, 702.

Portrait, crayon drawing of A. Gray, 94; bronze, St. Gaudens, 752.

Potamogeton, 350.

Potato introduced, 5.

Pourtalès, 719.

Powell, Baden, 464.

Presl, K. B., 223.

Prestele, 330, 340, 344, 362.

Prestwich, 802.

Price, B., 802.

Priest, Dr., 13.

Pringle, C. G., 727, 782.

Pursh, F., 111, 734; herbarium of, 22.

Pusey, 737.

Putnam, G. P., 23, 142, 143, 152, 265.

Putterlich, A., 214.

Pylaie’s, De la, herbarium, 173.

Pyxidanthera, 304.

Quarter-millennial of Harvard College, 789.

Quekett, E. J., 129, 130, 140.

Quercus alba, var., 672.

Quincy, President, 27, 283, 293.

Raffles, T., 86.

Rafinesque-Schmaltz, S. C., 278.

Ranunculaceæ, 344.

Ranunculus hydrocharoides, 408.

Ravenel, 745.

Rayleigh, Lord, 805.

Reade, 137.

Rebellion, 465, 467, 469, 470, 471, 478, 480, 481, 483, 486, 487, 490, 494, 495, 496, 503, 506, 511, 512, 518, 522, 526, 528, 533, 535, 537, 538, 554.

Reconstruction (of United States government), 544, 549, 554.

Redfield, J. H., early impressions of A. Gray, 31; letters to, 659, 686, 697, 701, 775, 811.

Redfield and Canby, letters to, 712, 723.

Reichenbach, H. Gottlieb, 267.

Reichenbach, H. Gustave, 811.

“Religion and Science,” Yale lectures, 693.

Religious views, 320, 321, 396; influence on Evolution, 751.

Requien, E., 184, 185.

Resignation of Professorship, 621, 624, 634, 635, 640, 641, 643.

Reuter, G. F., 26, 590.

Rhamnus Parviflora, 307.

Rhexia Virginica, 478, 484.

Rhizoma, enlargement of, meaning, 52.

Rhododendron, 315, 692.

“Rhynchosporæ, Monograph of North American,” 19, 31, 60.

Riaño, 704.

Rich, W., 21.

Richard, A., 24, 164, 400, 540.

Richard, L. C., 24.

Richard’s herbarium, 173, 178.

Richardson, Sir John, 110, 112, 364.

Richardson, Dr., 762.

Riocreux, 330.

Ripley, Mrs., 289.

Robbins, J. W., 686.

Robinia, 509.

Robinson, 123.

Roemer, 373.

Roeper, J. A. C., 700, 716.

Rogers, Mrs. H., 6, 787.

Roget, P. M., 113, 118, 129.

Rolleston, G., 595.

Romane, 742.

Roscoe, H. E., 807, 808.

Roscoe, W., 808.

Rosse, Lord, 384.

Rothrock, J. T., 485, 488, 530, 531.

Royal Society of London, 112, 127, 754.

Royer, Mme., 498.

Royle, J. F., 112, 151.

Rugel, 311.

Rugel’s New Holland Collections, 215.

Rutosma, 361.

Saccardo, P. A., 718.

Sandwich Island plants, 90.

Sandys, 800.

Santa Barbara, reception at, 768.

Saporta, 685, 807.

Sargent, C. S., 645, 681, 682, 686, 688, 728, 729, 786.

Sarracenia, 642, 646, 647.

Sartwell, 172.

Saturday Review, 479.

Sauquoit, 2-5.

Saussure, 719.

Savi, G., 194.

Saxifraga Careyana, 689, 691.

Schimper, W. P., 374, 697.

Schinus molle, 568, 763.

Schkuhr, C., 26, 267.

Schlechtendal, D. F. L. von, 26, 267.

Schleiden, 151.

Schönbrunn Botanic Garden, 218, 795.

Schooling, 5-8.

Schott, H., 218.

Schreber, 451.

Schultz Bipontinus, C. H., 715.

Schultz-Schultzenstein, C. H., 329.

Schultes, J. H., 235, 239.

Schwägrichen, C. F., 267.

Schweinitz, Bishop, 17, 44.

Schweinitzia, 310.

Scientific Club, 287.

Sedum pusillum, 652, 653.

Seemann, B., 473.

Semonville, Marquis, 24.

Senecio, 293, 294.

“Sequoia and its history,” 628, 638.

Sequoia sempervirens, 412.

Seringe, N. C., 24, 181.

Sessé, 782.

Shaw, Henry, 446, 453, 468, 752, 753, 761, 782.

Shaw Botanic Garden, 761, 782.

Shepherd, J., 88.

Short, C. W., 411, 447, 498.

Shortia galacifolia, 178, 179, 681, 682, 683, 686, 687, 692.

Siebold, P. F., 376.

Silliman’s Journal. See Am. Journal Science and Arts.

Silphium, 400.

Silver Craze, 781.

Sims’ herbarium, 151.

Slavery, 296, 535. See also Rebellion.

Sloane, Sir Hans, 199, 200, 201.

Smilax rotundifolia, 52.

Smith, Goldwin, 536.

Smith, I. A., 345, 346.

Smith, J. E., 685.

Smithsonian Institution, 397, 403, 665; Regent, 729, 730.

Smyth, N., 695.

Snake country collections, 90, 92.

Soleirol, 20.

Solidago, 279, 726.

Sophocles, E. A., 434.

South Pacific Exploring Expedition, See Exploring.

Spach, E., 23, 165, 176, 382, 418.

Species, 520, 617, 657, 744. See also Evolution, origin of.

Species, definition of, 497; essential character of, 691.

Spedding, J., 732.

Spelling match, 6, 787.

Spencer, H., 459, 740, 759.

Sprague, Isaac, 329, 330, 340, 347, 357, 362, 364, 366, 405.

Sprengel, 813.

Spruce’s plants, 437.

St. Augustine, 659.

St. Hilaire, A. de, 24, 167, 168.

Stanley, Dean, 605, 722.

Staunton, Sir F., 118.

Steindachner, 795.

Stephens, 539.

Stokes, 805.

Stokesia cyanea, 279.

Stone Mountain, 650.

Story, 801, 802.

Strachey, Gen., 671.

“Structural Botany,” 814.

“Studies in Solidago and Aster,” 726.

Subspecies, 744.

Subtropical Plants, Mexican, 765.

Sullivant, W. S., 28, 129, 280, 290, 306, 308, 310, 318, 360, 390, 433, 514, 640, 641, 668.

Sumner, C., 494.

Süss, E., 795.

Switzerland, walking tour in 1839, 240-263; (1869) 590.

Synoptical Flora. See Flora.

Talbot, 802, 805.

Talbot, Fox, 127.

Targioni-Tozzetti, 200.

Tatnall, E., 446.

Taylor, Richard, 114, 117.

Taylor, Dr., 789.

Taxus nucifera, 129.

Teacher in Utica, 16, 18, 19, 29, 37.

Teaching, 438, 439.

Teleology. See Design.

Temple, Bishop, 602, 780.

Tendrils, 492, 510, 512, 538, 539, 548, 611, 631, 633.

Tetradymia, 293.

“Text-Book, Botanical,” 28, 281, 282, 286, 289, 290, 297, 329, 334, 365, 366, 368, 685, 687, 693.

Thanksgiving, 738.

Thayer, N., 816.

Thayer, J. B., 781.

“Théorie Elémentaire,” De Candolle, 47.

Thompson, W. H., 380, 713.

Thompson, T., 380, 592.

Thomson, Sir William, 759.

Thurber, G., letters to, 408; references to, 406, 694.

Thurberia, 408, 409.

Thuret, G., 569, 572.

Thury, 519.

Tommasini, J. S., 25, 209.

Torrey, Herbert Gray, 141.

Torrey, J., letters to, 33-45, 51, 91, 149, 287, 292, 297, 303, 307, 314, 318, 324, 327, 333, 334, 339, 343, 356, 358, 362, 369, 445, 450, 568, 577, 596, 641, 622; references to, 15, 18, 20, 29, 31, 48, 134, 405, 415, 485, 500, 514, 533, 558, 595, 601, 639, 641, 813.

Torrey, Mrs., letters to, 67, 81, 152, 161, 198, 294, 300, 301, 305; references to, 30, 415.

Torrey, the Misses, letters to, 153, 163.

Torreya, 428, 650, 651.

Townsend, 278.

Traill, 759.

Transport boats, articulated, 759.

Treadwell, D., 27.

Trécul, A., 382.

Trees of North America, 362, 364, 366.

Trelease, W., 782.

Treveranus, 373.

Tricerastes, 223.

Trichomanes Petersii, 394.

Trichomanes radicans, 392, 394.

Trimen, 592.

Trisetum Molle, 46.

Trowbridge, J. F., 14, 15, 41; Letters to, 64, 65, 83.

Trumbull, J. H., 745.

Tuckerman, E., 27, 292, 784.

Tulasne, L. R., 382, 400.

Turner, Dawson, 388.

Tylor, 772, 802.

Tyndall, 565, 631, 805.

Ungnadia, 222.

United States Exploring Expedition. See Exploring.

University of Michigan, 21, 76, 83, 270, 274, 282.

Utica, 16, 18, 19, 29, 37.

Vaccinium brachycerum, 343.

Val Crucis, 309.

Valentine, W., 144, 149.

“Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication,” 561.

Vase presented to Asa Gray, 776.

Vasey, G., 688.

Vaughan, 805.

Ventenat herbarium, The, 178.

“Vestiges of Creation,” 328, 330, 345.

Vienna, 210-223.

Vienna Hofherbarium, 214, 795.

Vilmorin, H. de, 721, 799.

Vilmorin, L., 381, 445.

Virginia, Journey to. See North Carolina.

Visiani, R. de, 25, 204.

Vogel, 93.

Wallace, 613, 714.

Wallich, N., 379.

Walter, T., 134.

Walter’s herbarium, 130, 136, 813.

War. See Rebellion.

Ward, N. B., 23, 120, 126, 132, 137, 144, 369, 370.

Ward cases, 126.

Wartmann, 719.

Watson, S., 622, 640, 669, 694, 727, 729, 784, 787, 788, 813.

Webb, P. Barker, 23, 157, 173, 382.

Webb’s herbarium, 173.

Wedgewood, Miss, 755.

Weeds, 492.

Weiss, 795.

Weisner, 796.

Wellingtonia. See also Sequoia, 408.

Welwitschia, 541.

Whipple, Charles W., 73-79.

Whitney, Asa, 388.

Wilkes, C., 359, 392, 622.

Will, 816.

Willdenow, 26; herbarium, 268, 709.

Williams, S. Wells, 54.

Williamson, W. C., 722, 791, 807.

Willoughby, Dr., 12.

Wilson (Christopher North), 100, 104.

Winter, American, 739.

Winthrop, R. C., 543, 700.

Wislizenus, A., 351, 782.

Wood, A., 334.

Wright, Charles, Letters to, 352, 360, 362, 389, 405, 413, 482, 494, 516, 540, 546, 550, 554, 567, 575, 588, 616; references to, 360, 362, 390, 391, 393, 405, 406, 422, 426, 435, 441, 442, 470, 495, 515, 516, 541, 550, 568, 617, 773, 774.

Wright, Chauncey, 657.

Wright, G. F., Letters to, 655, 666, 684, 695.

Wyman, J., 303, 327, 502, 505, 511, 550, 553, 600.

Xantus de Vesey, L. J., 466.

Xantus, Californian Plants, 466.

Yale College Lectures, 693, 694, 699, 700.

Zuccarini, J. G., 25, 234, 235, 315.

Zygodon, Bones of, 303.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Peter Collinson, 1674-1768; a London woolen draper, and a correspondent of Bartram, who was the earliest native-born American botanist.

[2] Charles Loring Brace, son of J. P. Brace. Eminent as founder of the Children’s Aid Society, New York.

[3] The result was published in _Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England_, written by his companion, Frederic Law Olmsted.

[4] Ludolf Christian Treviranus, 1779-1864; professor of botany in Bonn.

[5] J. B. G. W. Fresenius, M. D., 1808-1866. Wrote many contributions to mycology.

[6] William Philip Schimper, 1808-1880; an eminent bryologist and paleontologist.

[7] Alexander Braun, 1805-1877; a distinguished botanist, the early companion of Agassiz at Heidelberg; professor at Berlin. “As an investigator he stood in the front rank among the botanists of our time” [A. G.].

[8] Charles Henry Godet, 1797-1879; author of the _Flora of the Jura_.

[9] F. A. W. Miquel, 1812-1871; director of the Amsterdam herbarium and professor of botany, Utrecht.

[10] William H. De Vriese, 1806-1862; professor in the University of Leyden; author of many important works and memoirs.

[11] Charles Louis Blume, 1796-1866; in charge of the Colonial Botanic Gardens at Java; later curator of the herbarium of the Royal Museum at Leyden.

[12] Philip Franz Siebold, 1796-1866. Wrote _Flora Japonica_. He brought from Japan a large collection of curios when the country was rarely opened to a foreigner, and at the risk of his life.

[13] Nathaniel Wallich, 1789-1854, a Dane by birth; a distinguished East Indian botanist.

[14] Richard Congreve, fellow and tutor of Wadham. Among his many publications is _The Translation of the Catechism of Positive Religion_.

[15] Thomas Thompson, 1817-1878; son of the distinguished chemist of Glasgow; explorer and traveler in India; director of the Calcutta Botanic Garden.

[16] François André Michaux, 1770-1856; son of André Michaux, who traveled in North America from 1785 to 1796. Wrote _Forest Trees of North America_.

[17] François Delessert, brother of Benjamin. Died 1868. Liberal patron of arts and sciences.

[18] Louis René Tulasne, 1815; aide naturaliste at the Museum at Paris.

[19] Charles Naudin; now director of the Jardin d’Acclimitation at Antibes.

[20] Auguste Trécul, Paris; writer on Vegetable Histology.

[21] Heinrich Rudolph August Grisebach, 1813-1879. Hannover and Göttingen. Professor of botany in the university. “A prominent and voluminous systematic botanist. His most important work a treatise on the Vegetation of the Earth.” [A. G.].

[22] Died 1892, much lamented.

[23] Arthur Hugh Clough, 1819-1861. The poet was resident in America from November, 1852, to June, 1853.

[24] It also often has the distribution of a certain number of public documents of scientific value. I am about to ask its secretary to procure for you, if possible, a copy of Frémont’s two reports, which you desire,--if too late to procure it gratis, as I fear, to purchase the volume at my expense.--A. G.

[25] Thaddeus Wm. Harris, 1795-1856; librarian of Harvard College and a distinguished entomologist.

[26] Dr. Gray sent to Kew manilla paper for the genus covers in the herbarium.

[27] George Thurber, 1821-1890; born in Providence; botanist to the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey Commission; then in the Assay Office in New York; later, editor of the _American Agriculturist_; a student of grasses.

[28] From a letter to Sir W. J. Hooker: “Curious that this correspondence, after lying so long, should at length be printed and published in New England.”--A. G.

[29] Charles W. Short, M. D., 1794-1862; professor of materia medica in the University of Transylvania, Lexington, Ky. Removed later to Louisville. Dr. Gray named for him Shortia galacifolia, discovered in Michaux’s herbarium in Paris, in 1839.

[30] On the 2d July, 1872, Dr. Gray saw the Calaveras and Mariposa groves. In the Calaveras Grove he counted, with one of his fellow-travelers, the rings and took measurements of the fallen tree “Hercules.” His memoranda of the size, etc., were:--

Height when standing was 315 feet.

A section at 21 feet from ground was 6 feet 10½ inches radius, on the line counted.

Layers| Rate of growth. Counted on it 1,500|First century 10¼ in. radius Uncounted sapwood (est.) 30| “ 400 years 27¼ “ “ “ centre “ 10|Last century 3½ “ “ Growth to 21 feet “ 10|Last 400 years 14 “ “ ----| Estimated age (years) 1550|

[31] _First Lessons in Botany._

[32] Isaac F. Holton, M. D., 1813-1874; teacher and professor of natural science in Vermont, and missionary pastor in Illinois. Published in 1857 _New Granada, Twenty Months in the Andes_.

[33] _A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, with Remarks on their Economy._ By Frederic Law Olmsted. New York, 1856.

[34] William Darlington, M. D., 1782-1863, of West Chester, Penn.; author of _Flora Cestrica_, “one of the best of local Floras,” and _Memorials of Bartram and Marshall_, etc. “A most faithful botanist. His forte was the clear and accurate description of plants” [A. G.].

[35] Thomas Potts James, 1804-1882. Born in Radnor, Penn. A proficient and authority in bryology.

[36] _First Lessons._

[37] _How Plants Grow._ Sir Joseph Hooker in _Nature_, February 16, 1888, says of _How Plants Grow_ and _How Plants Behave_, “that for charm of matter and style they have no equal in botanical literature.”

[38] Daniel Cady Eaton, professor of botany at Yale.

[39] _Botanical Gazette_, March, 1888.

[40] Memoir of Dr. Gray, American Academy, 1888.

[41] _Scientific Papers of Asa Gray_, vol. ii.

[42] _How Plants Grow._

[43] William Munro, 1816-1880; general in British army. “The most accomplished agrostologist of our day” [A. G.].

[44] Edward Tatnall, b. 1822, Wilmington, Del.; author of a catalogue of plants of Newcastle County, Delaware.

[45] A quotation from Butler’s _Analogy_, on the use of the word “natural,” which in the second edition is placed with the passages from Whewell and Bacon, on p. ii., opposite the title-page.

[46] Reviews of Darwin’s _Origin of Species_--_Darwiniana_.

[47] L. J. Xantus de Vesey. Collected at Fort Tejon in 1857-1859 for the Smithsonian Institution.

[48] Charles C. Parry, M. D., 1823-1890. Born in England, came to America in 1832. Explored and collected on the Mexican boundary, in the Rocky Mountains and in California. Died in Davenport, Iowa,--where is his herbarium.

[49] Berthold Seemann, 1825-1871; editor of the _Journal of Botany, British and Foreign_, etc., etc.

[50] The dinner after the capture of Mason and Slidell.

[51] President C. C. Felton.

[52] J. Trimble Rothrock, of McVeytown, Pennsylvania, b. 1839; botanist of Wheeler’s Survey of the United States Expedition to Alaska; late professor in the University of Pennsylvania.

[53] “Memoirs of Augustin Pyramus De Candolle,” _Am. Jour. Sci._, xxxv. 1-10.

[54] Dr. Jeffries Wyman.

[55] _The Antiquity of Man._

[56] There was a rough sketch of the disk, etc., in the margin.

[57] Dr. Gray enlisted and drilled with a company raised for service in Massachusetts.

[58] Oswald Heer, 1809-1883; born in canton St. Gall, Switzerland; professor of botany at Zurich. “The most distinguished paleontological botanist of our time” [A. G.].

[59] William H. Brewer; botanist of the survey of California; professor in the Sheffield Scientific School, New Haven.

[60] The assassination of President Lincoln.

[61] _Scientific Papers of Asa Gray_, selected by C. S. Sargent, vol. ii. p. 321; also in _American Journal Science and Arts_, 2 ser., xli. p. 1 (1866).

[62] Johann Nils Andersson, 1821; professor of botany at Stockholm.

[63] The portrait is in the herbarium of the Museum at Stockholm.

[64] A. W. Chapman, b. 1809. Southampton, Mass. Residing at Apalachicola, Fla.; author of the _Flora of the Southern States_.

[65] Horace Mann, 1844-1868. Made large collections in the Sandwich Islands. Wrote “Enumeration of Hawaiian Plants,” _Proceedings American Academy_, 1866.

[66] George W. Clinton, 1807-1885; author of _A Catalogue of the Native and Naturalized Plants of the City of Buffalo, and its vicinity_.

[67] A set of questions on expression, etc.

[68] Coe F. Austin, 1832-1880; especially devoted to the study of Hepaticæ.

[69] William M. Canby, of Wilmington, Delaware.

[70] Presidential address by George Bentham, meeting of the Linnæan Society, May 24, 1867.

[71] _The Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication_, by Charles Darwin: London, 1868. Republished by _American Agriculturist_: New York.

[72] Charles Frederic Martins, M. D., 1806-1889; professor of botany and director of the Botanic Garden at Montpellier.

[73] Jules Emile Planchon, 1823-1888; professor at Montpellier; author of important works on Systematic Botany and Morphology. Studied Phylloxera.

[74] Gustave Thuret, 1810-1875. “One of the best investigators of Algæ; established a remarkable botanical garden at Antibes” [A. G.].

[75] John Traherne Moggridge, 1842-1874; a keen naturalist. Wrote on the botany of Mentone, and on harvesting ants and trap-door spiders.

[76] Edouard Naville, of Geneva; distinguished Egyptologist; since 1883 the representative of the Egyptian Exploration fund.

[77] Von Martius died in March, 1869.

[78] Boat-race between Harvard and Oxford.

[79] Maxwell T. Masters; editor of _Gardener’s Chronicle_; author of _Vegetable Teratology_.

[80] William Carruthers; botanist of the British Museum, London.

[81] Johannes Müller (Argoviensis); late director of the Botanic Garden at Geneva. Has written largely on Lichens.

[82] Sir William Henry Flower, M. D., London; curator of the Hunterian Museum. Succeeded Owen as director of the British Museum of Natural History.

[83] George Rolleston, M. D., 1829-1881; professor of anatomy and physiology at Oxford.

[84] Sermon preached in Westminster Abbey, at the consecration of the new bishop of Salisbury.

[85] Dr. Gray’s black and tan terrier, his loving companion for twelve years.

[86] Theodore Caruel, professor in Florence.

[87] Ernest Cosson, 1819-1890. Wrote the _Flora of Algiers_ and the _Flora of the Environs of Paris_.

[88] _The Descent of Man._

[89] Mr. Church had been appointed dean of St. Paul’s, London.

[90] _How Plants Behave._

[91] “Sequoia and its History; the Relations of North American to Northeast Asian and to Tertiary Vegetation,” in _Darwiniana_, pp. 205-235.

[92] “An able philosophical writer, Miss Frances Power Cobbe, has recently and truthfully said:--

“‘It is a singular fact that when we can find out how anything is done, our first conclusion seems to be, God did not do it. No matter how wonderful, how beautiful, how intimately complex and delicate has been the machinery which has worked perhaps for centuries, perhaps for millions of ages, to bring about some beneficent result, if we can but catch a glimpse of the wheels, its divine character disappears.’

“I agree with the writer that this first conclusion is premature and unworthy, I will add deplorable. Through what faults and infirmities of dogmatism on the one hand, and skepticism on the other, it came to be so thought, we need not here consider. Let us hope, and I confidently expect, that it is not to last; that the religious faith which survived without a shock the notion of the fixity of the earth itself may equally outlast the notion of the absolute fixity of the species which inhabit it; that in the future, even more than in the past, faith in an order, which is the basis of science, will not, as it cannot reasonably, be dissevered from faith in an Ordainer, which is the basis of religion.”--“Sequoia and its History,” in _Darwiniana_, p. 205.

[93] This was the beginning of summer schools in Harvard University.

[94] “Life of Charles Darwin,” in _Nature_, June 4, 1874.

[95] See vol. xxxiv. n. ser., November, 1862, pp. 428, 429.--A. G.

[96] Moses Ashley Curtis, D. D., 1808-1872. Born in Charlestown, Mass.; early removed to the South; lived near Hillsboro, N. C. His botanical studies were largely on Fungi.

[97] Rev. G. Frederick Wright, then a clergyman at Andover, Mass., now professor at Oberlin, Ohio.

[98] The book was published with Mr. Wright’s assistance.

[99] Review of _Darwin’s Insectivorous and Climbing Plants_, in _The Nation_, Nos. 549 and 550.

[100] The afterwards famous designer of yachts.

[101] T. S. Brandegee. Engaged on railroad surveys in Colorado and Washington territories and the Northern Pacific. At present living in San Francisco.

[102] The bad railroad strikes of the summer of 1877.

[103] J. G. Lemmon; late botanist of the California State Board of Forestry; author of a report on California Conifers.

[104] _The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species._

[105] Photograph of camp on Rocky Mountains, La Veta Pass, with the best photographic likenesses, perhaps, ever taken of Sir J. D. Hooker and Dr. Gray; and including General and Mrs. Strachey, Dr. Hayden, and Captain Stevenson.

[106] Articles in the New York _Independent_, signed “Country Reader,” by Dr. Gray.

[107] At a memorial meeting held in honor of Professor Henry by the Board of Regents and both Houses of Congress, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, January 16, 1879, Dr. Gray read a Biographical Memorial of Joseph Henry, in behalf of the Board of Regents.

[108] Heinrich Ludwig Muhlenberg, 1756-1817; a Lutheran preacher in Lancaster, Penn.; published a _Catalogue of North American Plants_, and a _Description of North American Grasses_.

[109] James Watson Robbins, M. D., 1807-1879; physician at Uxbridge, Mass. “A most critical student of the botany of New England and northern United States, and especially of the Potamogetons” [A. G.].

[110] Edward Palmer; has collected largely in southern Florida and Mexico.

[111] “Dr. Gray, with Mr. Cowles and some of the neighbors, had gone up Negro Mountain. He found on the top the plant he expected, a Saxifraga, made out the narrow ravine he had explored thirty-six years ago, found it, and in its same spot the rare plant (an Aconite) he had then discovered, rarely seen growing since, and so came back triumphant.”--Extract from Mrs. Gray’s journal.

[112] Howard Shriver, M. D., formerly at Wyethville, Va., now at Cumberland, Md.

[113] John A. C. Roeper, 1800-1884; director and professor in the Botanic Garden at Bâle; removed to Rostock, Prussia, as professor, before 1840.

[114] The Yale Lectures.

[115] Alphonse Lavallée, 1835-1884. Paris. “His specialty, ornamental trees and shrubs, of which he had nearly the largest and best collection in Europe, studying them with assiduity” [A. G.].

[116] Dr. C. H. Schultz [Bipontinus], 1805-1867. Rhenish Bavaria. A distinguished botanist, who devoted himself to Compositæ, and amassed an extremely rich herbarium in that family.

[117] Willdenow’s Asters were sent over to me here!--A. G.

[118] Pietro Andrea Saccardo; professor at Padua.

[119] Otto Penzig, M. D.; formerly assistant professor at Padua, now professor at Genoa.

[120] Seen first in 1850, with its temporary roof and bases of towers.

[121] Samuel B. Parish, San Bernardino, Cal.

[122] William Cusick, Crowell, Oregon.

[123] C. G. Pringle; for many years has explored the botany of Mexico.

[124] _Contemporary Review_, xli.

[125] J. Hammond Trumbull, of Hartford, Conn.; a great authority on Indian languages and customs, and author of many contributions, historical and philological. Perhaps the only American scholar able to read Eliot’s Bible.

[126] The birth of the Dean’s first grandchild.

[127] Dr. Gray went to New York to finish his sittings to St. Gaudens for the bronze bas-relief now in the herbarium at Cambridge.

[128] “Characteristics of the North American Flora,” _American Journal of Science_, ser. 3, vol. xxviii, p. 323; also in _Scientific Papers of A. Gray_, selected by C. S. Sargent.

[129] Sir William Thomson, Lord Kelvin,--the distinguished physicist.

[130] The inkstand is now placed in the library of the herbarium with Sir William J. Hooker’s hand-glass, so much used by Dr. Gray.

[131] Daniel Morris, assistant director of the Royal Gardens, Kew.

[132] Matteo Botteri, died in 1885. Sent to Mexico by London Horticultural Society. Made fine collections, especially about Orizaba, where he settled.

[133] General John Bidwell was the Prohibition candidate for the Presidency in 1892.

[134] Named the Sir Joseph Hooker Oak.

[135] _American Journal of Science_, 3 ser. xxxi, 12.--1886. Reprinted in _Scientific Papers_, selected by C. S. Sargent, vol. ii. p. 468.

[136] Josef Mariano Mocino. Was on the coast of California in 1792. Botanized in Mexico, especially in the northern part. His drawings, brought to Europe after the death of Sessé, were left with Aug. Pyr. de Candolle. When suddenly reclaimed they were copied for him by the united labors of the ladies of Geneva.

[137] William Trelease, St. Louis; professor of botany at Washington University, and director of Missouri Botanical Garden.

[138] Thomas Coulter. Little is known of him. He explored in Mexico many years and in California in 1831 and 1832. Was appointed Curator of the herbarium of the Dublin Botanic Garden, where he died in 1843.

[139] John Goldie, 1793-1886. Traveled in North America, 1817 to 1820, collecting plants. After his return to Scotland emigrated to Ayr, Ontario, 1844, where he died.

[140] Dr. Gray returned for this last book to the title of his first book, published in 1836, _Elements of Botany_.

[141] Eduard Süss; professor of paleontology at Vienna.

[142] A. W. Eichler, 1839-1887; succeeded Alexander Braun at Berlin.

[143] Henry John Elwes, author of the sumptuous monograph of the genus Lilium.

[144] Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach, 1823-1889; professor of botany at Hamburg, and an authority on orchids.