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.