a { LET PERS OF ASA GRAY EDITED BY JANE LORING GRAY IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. II. BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY Che Viverside Bress, Cambridge 1893 ee . ee ae ee : : : Rae nae ict ng ; , ‘ z : +3 be By JANE LORING GRAY. 7 : ; Ail rights reserved. ; i fet , t ‘4 : 2 i se Cs io = : nt a te : i poke _ ; ie ; : Y ‘ aad ae ae = a / / = . ¥ * = £3 - aay a in fd r EO ne es re : . 5 é ee SE See ae NT ES, ae ee ee eee See CONTENTS. V. Szeconp Journey in Evrorr. — CorrEsPONDENCE. ws 1850-1859 .. er ee es VI. Lerrers ro Darwin anv Orners. 1860-1868 . 454 VIL. Travet in Evrorr anp America. 1868-1880 . . 565 VIL. Finan Journeys Anp Work. 1880-1888... = 10 Nore on THe Innusrrations. The “ara portrait of Dr. a ea facing page 614, is from a photograph taken for ork. a a a a Beer ge ee te: LETTERS OF ASA GRAY. CHAPTER V. SECOND JOURNEY IN EUROPE. — CORRESPONDENCE. 1850-1859. Dr. Gray sailed for England with Mrs. Gray in a sailing packet June 11, 1850. The steamers made regular trips, but the fine packets were still running, and it was on ease to try the uae voyage for Mrs. Gray’s h Dr. Gray sai nee with his old friends, and made many new ones, meeting at his friend’ Mr. Ward’s, where they first stayed, many of the younger men, Henfrey, Forbes, etc., who had become known in science since his former visit in 1839. _ TO JOHN TORREY. GuEnt, Beierom, July 16, 1850. I surely meant that you should have heard of us long ere this. But there seemed not to be a moment of time during the fortnight we spent in England; Mr. Ward kept us so busy with every sort of engage- ment and sight-seeing that J. could enjoy. I meant to have written at Dover last evening ; but it was not convenient, so now that we are for the first night in a strange country (which England is not) I must tell you, what I trust you have learned from Carey (to whom I had occasion to write hurriedly, last mail), that we had a very pleasant voyage of seventeen and 370 SECOND JOURNEY IN EUROPE. _ [1850, a half days and came near making it in fourteen, as we made land early on the morning of the twelfth day out, no storms, but gentle favoring breezes till we made the Irish coast; and then, to our disappoint- ment, we had head winds to beat against all the way up to Holyhead, and reached Liverpool Saturday morning. . On Monday we left Liverpool, which has vastly improved since you saw it; stopping at Coventry and turning off to Leamington to see, at Darlington’s de- sire, the descendants of old Peter Collinson,! and deliver some books and letters from him, which I did. Mrs. Collinson was ill with a severe fall, but her daughter received the things I brought, and showed me a portrait of Peter. Then Mrs. Gray and I made an excursion to Warwick Castle, the fine ruins of Kenilworth, and Stoneleigh Abbey, driving through six or seven miles of fine park. The next day on to London, to Ward, who had insisted on our visiting him. He lives three and a half miles out of London, in a pleasant and quiet suburban house; his son being established in Wellclose Square. Boott I saw the same evening I arrived, and two days later, with J., but not later. He has been quite sick with an influenza, and a slight but not altogether pleasant inflammation of the lungs. To Hooker I went at once also, and got your kind letter there, and saw Kew. Hooker is quite well; but Lady H. is very poorly. . . . She inquired most particularly and sdihcliaaiele afte yourself, and asked about all your family. .. . 1 Peter Collinson, sia teied a London woolen draper, and a cor- respondent of Bartram, who was the earliest native-born American botanist. ar. 39.] TO JOHN TORREY. 371 On Monday I made another visit to Kew Gardens, (a grand affair) to show the lions of the place to four or five young Americans I knew, one of them young Brace,! J.’s cousin, who is making with two friends a pleasant and profitable pedestrian excursion in Eng- land.2. I cannot begin to tell you the half we have done and seen in England, but we were most busy: Saturday, conversazione of Royal Botanical Society in Regent’s Park. Wednesday, excursion with Linnean Club to Hertford ; saw a great Pinetum, 600 species of Conifers, etc., and the Panshanger Oak. (1 wrote Carey a few words of this.) Thursday, a most pleasant day with Hooker. Miss Hooker looks quite well ; all send their love to you, all most kind and sweet to us. Hooker has altered little, but looks older. Brown looks older perhaps, but decidedly stronger, is as healthy as possible and very lively. In talking with him and showing him about it he gave up about Kra- meria, and said I must be right. He formerly une- quivocally referred it to Polygalacee. Bennett is large and fat. I fear he does not work hard enough. Yesterday we came down to Dover early in the afternoon (a striking place), and embarked late in the evening on steamer for Ostend, which we reached early this morning ; came right on to Bruges, which listless and very curious old-world town, and its curi- osities, we have all day been exploring, till six o’clock, when we came on twenty-eight miles further by rail- way to the famous and more lively town of Ghent, — where I have been running about till the dusk arrived, 1 Charles Loring Brace, son of J. s bea Eminent as founder of the Children’s Aid Society, New Y 2 The result was published in Sig ail Talks of an American Farmer in England, written by his companion, Frederic Law Olmsted. 372 SECOND JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1850, and must now to bed, as we have to finish Ghent to- morrow before dinner, and go on to Antwerp after- wards, thence to Cologne. I think we shall cut Brussels. At Ghent saw the Belfry and the strange old Town Hall. . I went to the Botanic Garden (did not find Paifescas Kickx), — hardly as large as ours at Cambridge, and by no means so rich or half so well kept, though said to be the best in Belgium ; explored the university library, and strolled through the streets and along the canals. Antwerp. — Imagine us settled neentitovtadihy at Hotel du Pare, Wednesday evening, overlooking the Place Verte, our windows commanding a near mal most ad- vantageous view of the finest cathedral in Belgium, with light enough still to see pretty well against the sky the graceful outlines and much of the light tracery and Gothic work of this gem of a steeple, one of the loftiest in the world (403 feet, 7 inches) and probably unsurpassed by any for lightness, grace, and the elaborateness of the carved work. Napoleon com- pared it to Mechlin lace. And such sweet chimes, every fifteen minutes! The chime at the beginning of the hour still rings in our ears. We have never tired of listening to it... . Bonn, July 22. We drove through the city (Cologne) to the station of the Bonn railroad. But on the way the driver, of his own motion, stopped at the door of the cathedral. Finding that we had time enough to take a good look before the train left, we could not resist, and saw this wonder and masterpiece of true Gothic architecture ; which by the united efforts of most North German powers is going on toward completion, in the style and —cssaeasai arias ie ceaaaaiainaatial ET. 39.] TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. 373 plan on which it was commenced seven hundred or eight hundred years ago, and in which the choir was finished, and the transepts and nave commenced. It is most grand ; the grandest thing we ever saw, though the nave bears only a temporary roof, at thirty or forty feet less than the full height. The ancient stained glass comes fully up to one’s expectation. I have never seen the like. We went up to Poppelsdorf ; such charming and picturesque view of the Siebengebirge (seven moun- tains) and the Godesberg, ete., from the professor’s windows and the Botanic Penden: the museums rich and curious, and parts of the old chateau in which they are (now surrendered to the university) not less so. The botanical professors, Treviranus! and Dr. Roemer, very kind ; some collections to be made ready here for me to examine when we come back, so that I must then spend a day here. . . . TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. Geneva, August 16, 1850. We went up the Rhine to Coblenz, Bingen, and Mayence ; thence to Frankfort. By some mistake in the post office in giving me the address, your letter to Dr. Fresenius? I took to a law-doctor Fresenius, who was away in Switzerland. So I gave up all hopes of seeing him, and we fell to seeing the sights by our- selves, when, a few hours before we had arranged to go to Heidelberg, the true Dr. Fresenius came in. We may see him again on our way back. We went to Heidelberg, for an hour or two only. . 1 Ludolf Christian Treviranus, 1779-1864 ; professor of botany in Bo nn. 2 J. B. G. W. Fresenius, M. D., 1808-1866. Wrote many contribu- ov 374 SECOND JOURNEY IN EUROPE. _ [1850, It is now the 20th,— time passed fast. I work to-day in herbariums De Candolle and Boissier, and to-morrow morning we go to Freiburg and Berne and the Bernese Oberland. We cannot be back now in England so early as we expected; but still hope to be there by the 20th September. . . Thursday morning, after an sais. breakfast, went on by railroad to Kehl; left our luggage and took a carriage over the bridge of boats, across the lines of the French republic (?) into Strasburg. Saw Schimper ; 4 then we went to the cathedral, viewed the grand front of this imposing structure, and the wonderful spire, the tallest in the world; were much struck with the grandeur of the interior, wholly lighted by stained glass, the greater part of it 400 or 500 years old. After visiting the Museum of Natural History, and arranging with Schimper to meet him in Switzer- land, where he is to pass with his wife (a Swiss lady) a long vacation, we took our carriage and returned to the Baden side of the river, and came on to Frei- burg Cin the Breisgau) that evening, reaching it in the rain. ... Professor Braun,? the brother of the first Mrs. Agassiz, was very kind to us. He is a very interest- ing man, of charming manners; his wife very sweet and charming, his children most engaging. Saturday afternoon we took a carriage, and with Professor Braun rode up a beautiful valley to the Héllenthal (French, Vallée d’Enfer), a rocky and wooded gorge of 1 William Philip Schimper, 1808-1880 ; an eminent bryologist and paleontologist. 2 a Braun, 1805-1877; a distinguished goer, the mand companion assiz at Heidelberg ; professor at Berli investigator ri stood in the front rank among the toteniie ie our time ” [A. G.]. xT. 39.] TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. 375 very striking scenery ; wild and majestic, rather than terrible, as its name imports. . . In the afternoon visited the ccatiodbval, one of the finest and oldest in Europe, that is well preserved. Here nearly every part, and all the stained glass, of a most curious kind, is perfectly preserved; and the spire, though not so high as that of Strasburg, is as elaborate and light,—as it were of woven stone thread, — and even more beautiful. Tuesday we rode from Bale to c= (fifty-six miles) in a diligence, from eight a. M. to five P. M., through the Miinster Thal, the ‘prandéat and most pic- turesque scenery of the Jura. Wednesday, a ride of three hours along lakes of Bienne and Neuchatel brought us to Neuchatel at eleven o’clock A. M. . . . Professor Godet,! who re- ceived me most cordially, took me (with Mr. Coulon) up the Chaumont, 2,500 feet; but the Alps were ob- seured by clouds, at least the higher Alps, and we had no fine view of them; otherwise the view was very fine. We returned by the great boulder Pierre a Bot. All asked after Agassiz with much interest. Excur- sions are planned for us when we return. .. . Dr. Gray enjoyed the visit to Geneva, where he re- newed his friendship with MM. Alphonse De Candolle and Boissier, accomplishing some useful work, and having pleasant social meetings and excursions. He went to Chamouni and the Bernese Oberland ; then to Munich, especially to meet again Martius, with whom he had been in constant correspondence, and who made the journey from Tyrol to greet his old friend. _ Their few days together were greatly enjoyed. 1 Charles Henry Godet, 1797-1879 ; author of the Flora of the Jura. 376 SECOND JOURNEY IN EUROPE. _ [1850, He returned to England, going down the Neckar by steamboat to Heidelberg, then down the Rhine, and through Holland, where he saw Miquel! in Am- sterdam, rambling with him on a féte-day through the streets at evening, enjoying the queer sights ; went to Leyden, meeting De Vriese,? with whom was R. Brown (then staying in Leyden for a few days), and seeing the Botanic Garden, one of the oldest in Europe, and well known to Linneus. Blume * he missed, but he saw Siebold’s* collection of Japanese curios, then most rare. He took steamer from Rot- terdam to London, and after a few days went down to Mr. Bentham’s, in Herefordshire. Here were spent two months of very hard work with Mr. Bentham, who most kindly went over with him the plants of the United States Exploring Expe- dition, which had been brought over the Atlantic for the purpose. Pontrilas is in a pretty, hilly country on the border of Wales, with many old churches, almost of Saxon time, in the neighborhood, to give interest to walks, and very interesting, agreeable neighbors for a day or two’s visiting, among duce the authoress, Mrs. Archer Clive, who was ve iad. He left Pontrilas early in December to make a visit, at Dublin, to his friend Professor Harvey, to stay in 1 F, A. W. Miquel, 1812-1871; director of the Amsterdam herba- rium and professor of botany, Utrech 2 William H. De Vriese, 1806-1862 ; saeco in the University of sas deen author of many important works and memoirs. 8 Charles Louis Blume, 1796-1866; in charge ‘of the Colonial Bo- tanic Gardens at Jaya; later curator of the herbarium of the Royal Museum at Leyden. 4 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. ee a a es ee ee es tit bee ee Fa ee ee Ta ee xT. 40.] TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 377 the family of Mr. and Mrs. Todhunter, Dr. Harvey’s sister. Going on board the steamer at ten in the evening, he met with the severe accident of which he gives an account in his letters. Dr. Harvey came from Dublin to help in nursing him. His vigor and elasticity helped him to a speedy recovery, but it in- creased a general tendency to stoop, and he was never so erect afterwards. He was able to get to Kew the last of December, and spent the winter in hard work in Sir William Hooker’s herbarium, which was then in his house at West Park. TO A. DE CANDOLLE. CumMBERLAND Prace, Kew, December 28, 1850. Your kind favor of December 6th, forwarded to me by Bentham, to Dublin, would have been sooner acknowledged, but that it found me an invalid. On our way from Hereford to Dublin I had just gone on board a steamer at Holyhead, early in the evening ; had left Mrs. Gray in the ladies’ cabin, when, coming on deck again, I stepped over an open hatchway which had been left for the moment very carelessly un- guarded and unlighted. I fell full eighteen feet, they say, to the bottom of the hold, striking partly on my right hand and the side of my right leg, bruising and straining both, but principally on my right side against a timber projecting from the floor, fracturing two of my ribs. It is truly wonderful that I was not more seriously and permanently injured. I was taken on shore at once and had good medical attendance. I re- covered so rapidly that in a week I was comfortably taken across to Dublin, where I was kindly cared for by good friends ; in two weeks more I left for London, 378 SECOND JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1850, able to walk without difficulty ; and to-day, just four weeks after the accident, | have begun to work at plants again, in Sir William Hooker’s herbarium. But my side is still tender, and my strength is not great. Having said thus much of my bodily condition, let me no longer delay to thank you heartily for the very unexpected compliment that you have caused to be paid me, and to ask you to convey, in fitting terms, my grateful acknowledgments to the Société de Physique et d’Histoire Naturelle, for the honor they have con- ferred upon me in choosing me as one of their cor- responding members. I was not aware that I had rendered any particular services to your society, but I shall be very glad to do so if any opportunity offers. Although, generally, I am far from coveting compli- ments of this kind, I assure you I am much pleased to be thus associated with several valued personal friends, my contemporaries, and with such highly honored names of the past generation. . We had eight weeks of most pleasant aid profitable labor at Pontrilas, and Mr. Bentham has rendered me invaluable assistance. Mrs. Gray joins me in the expression of kind re- membrances and regard to Madame De Candolle and yourself. Believe me to remain, ever most sincerely yours, Asa GRay. Since Dr. Gray was so near Sir William, and work- ing in the herbarium almost every day, there was much meeting of old friends, and of many of the men distin- guished in botany. Robert Brown, with his keen ob- servation and dry wit, he saw constantly at the British &T, 40. ] VISIT AT OXFORD. 379 Museum, Dr. Wallich,! Mr. Miers and many others. There was some social visiting in London and the neighborhood. Mr. Abbott, Lawrence was then Amer- ican minister in London, and he and Mrs. Lawrence were very kind and attentive, giving him a chance to see at an evening reception some of the great men of the London world: the Duke of Wellington, Lady Morgan, Whewell the Master of Trinity, Lord Bough- ton, Lord Gough, and many others It was the year of the first great World’s Exhibition, and the building was then considered very wonderful. Through the kindness of Professor Lindley he was enabled to see it before it was completed. There was a very charming visit to Oxford in March, where Dr. Gray made most delightful ac- quaintances. He there first met Dean Church, then a fellow of Oriel, who had him to dine. He also dined with Mr. Congreve? at Wadham; met Maske- leyne, who showed him “some fine talbotypes, which are a sort of daguerreotype on paper, and have a beautiful effect for landscapes and buildings.” Break- fasted with Mr. Burgon and Mr. Church, at Oriel, in Dr. Pusey’s old rooms, and met Mr. Burgon again at dinner, when dining in the ‘Common Room,” at a dinner given him by Mr. Church, and also Buckle and Sclater. Dr. Jacobson, then Regius professor of divinity, afterwards Bishop of Chester, and Mrs, Jacobson, were very kind. Dr. Daubeny was then professor of botany at Oxford, and there were some plants to look at in the small herbarium kept in the 1 Nathaniel > 1789-1854, a Dane by birth; a distinguished East Indian botanis 2 Richard eal fellow and tutor of Wadham. Among his Parl publications is The Translation of the Catechism of Positive Re- tgto: 380 SECOND JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1851, little Botanic Garden in an old greenhouse. The days were crowded with interesting sight-seeing and in meeting agreeable people. From Oxford, Dr. Gray went to Cambridge, where he met again a traveling acquaintance made on the passage from Rotterdam, Dr. Thompson, then Greek tutor, later Master of Trinity, who was very kind in doing the honors of Trinity, King’s Chapel, ete. At his rooms, Dr. Gray met Professor Challis and other Cambridge men. The grounds about the colleges were then at their greatest beauty, the banks of the Cam yellow with primroses, the whole setting off the beauti- ful bridges and stately buildings. Another traveling acquaintance met in the street, recalling an experience on the Furea, asked Dr. Gray to dine with him at Caius College, saying his name was Mackenzie. He was Bishop Mackenzie, who died in south Africa. On returning to Kew, Dr. Gray found Dr. Joseph Hooker, just back from his journey to the Himalayas and Thibet. Dr. Thompson ! was also there, just home from India, where he had been imprisoned with Lady Sale and others, twenty of them in one small room, during the trouble in Afghanistan. And one day came an invitation to lunch from the Hookers’, * to meet Mr. Darwin, who is coming to meet Dr. Hooker ; is distinguished as a naturalist.” “ Mr. Darwin was a lively, agreeable person” [Mrs. Gray’s journal]. TO A. DE CANDOLLE. CUMBERLAND Prace, Kew, April 14, 1851. For myself I am ad that I am perfectly recovered from the effects of my accident, and am as active as 1 Thomas Thompson, 1817-1878 ; son of the distinguished chemist of Glasgow ; explorer and traveler in India; director of the Calcutta Botanic Garden. zr. 40.] TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 381 ever. I have passed a very pleasant winter, and have prosecuted my studies to great advantage, though there still remains, alas! more for me to do than I can hope to accomplish in the time that is still left for me. Your letter was just in time to reach me here ; for we had just decided to go to Paris early next week ; to remain there until the Ist of June, at least. The only drawback is that we thereby lose the society of Mr. and Mrs. car who mean to come to Lon- don early next month. Sir William Becket 3 is saat yet well, though better than he was last winter. I have presented your kind messages, for which he sends best thanks, and is re- joiced to hear of your recovery. Sir William is truly a noble man; the more intimately you know him the more strongly attached to him you become. . . I had thought it quite likely that we cial pass through Gesaes again this summer; but ‘halt is not now possible. The sea, however, is not so broad as formerly. Believe me to remain, Very faithfully and affectionately yours, sa GRAY. In April Dr. and Mrs. Gray went to Paris, where he worked busily through the mornings at the Jardin des Plantes, taking the afternoon for his sight-seeing. He met again his old friends, Jussieu, Decaisne, Gay, ete., and made the acquaintance of M. and Mme. Vil- morin, both most charming and interesting people ; the former distinguished as a horticulturist, and both making investigations for many years on the varieties of strawberries, for which Mme. VY. made all the draw- ings. Two separate days were passed at Verriéres, their country home, an old villa belonging formerly 382 SECOND JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1851, to the Duchesse de la Valliere. And here to meet him came old Michaux ! the younger, then eighty-one, who had walked from his home (fifteen leagues), for the pleasure of seeing Dr. Gray. And it was at Dr. Gray’s request that both Michaux and Jussieu sat for their daguerreotypes for him, the only satisfactory likenesses of either. Mr. Francois Delessert? ex- tended pleasant hospitalities, and Mr. Webb was very kind and cordial. It was during the time of the Republic, Louis Na- poleon, p resident, and there were some grand fétes in May, in honor of the Republic, at which the officers of the government were conspicuously absent. Dr. Gray returned to Kew in June to continue his work, broken only by some days in London. TO GEORGE BENTHAM. Paris, April 30, 1851. Dear BentHoam, —I cannot give your message to Weddell, for he is on his way to the Peruvian cin- chona forests, to remain a year, — I suppose on a com- mission from the manufacturers of quinine. Jussieu still suffers with some affection of the stomach, but is much better than last winter. Decaisne is quite well, but is occupied with the Culture, and is little in the herbarium, where Spach, Tulasne,? Naudin,* and Trécul ° are in charge, under Brongniart and Jussieu. 1 Frangois André Michanx, 1770-1856; son of André Michaux, who traveled in North America from 1785 to 1796. Wrote Forest ica. Frangois — brother of Benjamin. Died 1868. Liberal patron of arts and sciences. $ Louis René Tulasne, 1815; aid liste at the M a 4 "ans Nandin; now director of the Jardin d’Acelimitation at Antibe Ss Revoiie Trécul, Paris ; writer on Vegetable Histology. zr. 40.] TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. 383 Webb is well, and so is Gay, who is quite happy, liv- ing on his half pay, which the Republic has secured to him, with his rooms free of rent, and some savings from his former income. I have not seen Gaudichaud yet; but he has offered to come and show me his Sandwich Island collections, ete., of which he has issued some plates, in “ La Voyage de la Bonite,” but no text has appeared, and none seems likely to appear. I gave to Dr. Alexander the list and notes on Fend- ler’s Chagres plants. He will hand it to you when he sees you in London. TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. Paris, May 6, 1851. Robert Brown told me that Link would be suc- ceeded in his excellent and lucrative professorship either by Grisebach! or by our excellent frien Braun. Since I have been here, a young man from Berlin says that the choice has fallen on Braun, — to my great joy, for I love Braun very much. I have given Lowell, who leaves Paris to-day, and will be in Germany in June and July, a letter to Braun, ad- dressed to Giessen or Berlin. Prince Paul’s sensitive branches of Mimosa eatch- ing unwary travelers is rich! TO ——. Wednesday morning, June 11. Settled down to usual Kew routine; glad enough to get back to quiet and superlative neatness ; to less 1 Heinrich Rudolph August Grisebach, 1813-1879. Hannover and Gittingen. 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.]. 384 SECOND JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1851, elegance than our Parisian quarters, but decidedly more comfort. The only thing that distresses us is, that we cannot translate Sax Mrs. Crook bodily to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Sure we would if she were younger; but the dear old creature will now erelong be translated to a far better land... . Unpacked (which in interminableness is only second to packing up) and went down to the Hookers’. . . Friday, after writing and dispatching lattors home, we went up to London, shopped, ete., in the City ; streets nasty (the English word is very appropriate ; no wonder they always use it), and such a contrast to beautiful and gay Paris, which is vastly more con- venient and agreeable for shopping. . . . Saturday, . . . a little stroll in the Gardens, which are looking beautifully, the trees loaded with rich foliage, and the great masses of Rhododendrons in blossom. In the evening went with Dr. Hooker up to the last soirée of Lord Rosse, the president of the Royal Society; too late to see Prince Albert, who came and went early; saw the usual dons. Sir Charles Lyell asked if I had stayed abroad all the time since last year, or had just come over afresh! .. . Wednesday, we were off early in the morning, to make our first visit to the Great Exhibition. We went up to town by railroad as usual; walked over Water- loo bridge, and having reached the Strand, had the satisfaction of seeing nine omnibuses pass westward, all full. Despairing of all hope of getting into an omnibus, we were just turning to look for a cab, when a well-dressed and respectable woman, who had been making similar unsuccessful attempts, rushed up to us, exclaiming, “Oh! are you going to the Exhibition? aici ea et pe OS NR es Ng eee re Eee tee a |< siti po a a ai ates a a ET, 40.] TO —, 385 Will you not take a cab with me? I have been trying for an omnibus in vain this half hour, and I have made an appointment with some friends there at half past ten.” We agreed at once to this reasonable and very convenient proposition, and we shared the ex- pense accordingly, with many expressions of thanks on the lady’s part. Before we had reached within half a mile of the Crystal Palace we were obliged to fall into dense line, with a close double file of cabs, carriages, dog-carts, and other “ vehicular convey- ances,” all wending their way thither, a similar file of empty carriages returning on the other side of the street; the sidewalks as well as the roads inside the park all crowded with pedestrians. Early as we were, a vast number of people were already there, but scat- tered through the vast interior, they scarcely made a crowd, until midday, when the more attractive parts of the structure, the principal streets and squares, so to say, were thronged. As to what we saw, is it not written at length in the great Official Catalogue (as far as that ponder- ous document is yet published), besides the Abridged Catalogue, in itself quite a sizable book, which we mean to bring home, with the Synopsis, and other things, quite a library, and I dare say you have heard and read quite enough about it. I doubt whether you have seen the leet nit and spirited articles in the “* Times,” beginning long before the building was finished, which give a most admirable and_ lively account of everything. The general impression of the interior was not quite so imposing, did not give such an idea of the vastness, as when we saw it in April, less full, and the long spaces unbroken. 386 SECOND JOURNEY IN EUROPE. (1851, On our way down the nave, we stopped for a mo- ment to see the Koh-i-noor, but the Mountain of Light looked to us little brighter than a piece of cut- glass. It does not come up to the general expecta- tion. Manage it as they will, it does not shine at all wonderfully, and the people got it into their heads that the authorities were shamming them with a glass imitation instead of the veritable Koh-i-noor; an idea well expressed in “ Punch,” who called it “ the knave of diamonds.” We determined to show our patriotism by going first of all carefully through the American department, and quite a trial to one’s pat- riotism it is, a great space, very scantily filled with an ill-assorted, incongruous collection (although they have given up to Russia and France about one quar- ter of the space that Mr. Lawrence asked for and insisted upon having): one long shelf displayed only half a dozen wooden pails; another side was decorated with a miserable collection of cast-off specimens of autumn-leaves, and below with a case containing five or six dozen bottles of prepared magnesia, all just alike, flanked at the sides with a similar collection of Old Jacob Townsend’s Sarsaparilla, surmounted by a portrait of the illustrious inventor. The strength of the nation has gone to daguerreotypes, of which there are about two thousand very good specimens of the art, it must be said, far better than they can produce in England. The same may be said of many things, creditable in themselves, but of which they have filled up their space, or attempted to fill it, with an enormous number of specimens, where one or two would suffice. But wherever anything is quite poor and commonplace, the exhibitor is sure to make it up in brag, in which it must be confessed we do * beat all creation.” ire ay fe Dirac tnd tacn Cech on = eae hee A Som sh oat Pr ee on eee #7, 40.] TO —. 387 Monday we went to the Zoodlogical Gardens, very extensive, in fine keeping, the richest collection of living animals of all sorts in the world. Were very much amused with monkeys of all sorts and sizes, from those little larger than a rat to the great and sedate orang-outang,' just arrived, who is quite a human and a very respectable grave old fellow. We saw the hippopotamus, too, but he Jay sleeping in the sun, and would give no sign of life except occasionally opening his eye and giving a wink. But one of the most amusing sights was the little suckling elephant, with its mother, and it was curious to see the little thing use its trunk as perfectly and knowingly as its mother . We stayed to see the ferocious animals fed, at half pact four, no great sight, as they behaved extremely proper, and then we hersed back to the station and came home to Kew. A short visit to the British Museum, which is an immense collection of objects of natural history, sculp- ture, books, antiquities, ete., ete. some botanical work in the herbarium there (the British Museum), but did not do anything that day, for we spent the time talking to Mr. Brown, who was in quite a chatty mood, He is a sin -looking man, with a very heavy lower lip and jaw, and generally carries his head down; but it is curious to watch him, and see how he kindles up, and what a satirical twinkle comes in the corner of his eyes when he tells some story, for he has a good deal of satire. Dr. Gray went to the meeting of the British Asso- ciation at Ipswich, where Prince Albert came for a few days. Dr. Hooker and Dr. Harvey (who had 1 Died 1892, much lamented. * 388 SECOND JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1851, been making a visit at Kew), and other scientific friends, were there. Among other discussions in one of the sections was one on the possibility of a railroad to the Pacific, a paper by Asa Whitney, “ which had been brought before the Geographical Society in London, and reported on favorably.” From Ipswich he made a most interesting visit to Lady Hooker’s father, Dawson Turner, seeing his very valuable collections, autographs, pictures, etc., and returning to Kew to work until breaking up to go back to America. A short trip was made in Ire- land, and Dr. Gray went to Pontrilas to say good- by to Mr. and Mrs. Bentham, immediately before the voyage. Dr. and Mrs. Gray were again at home, September 4. After Dr. Gray’s return from Europe, his busy life went on, filled with college work and the care of the Garden as accompaniments to a study of the new col- lections constantly coming in, the work on the Explor- ing Expedition, the keeping his various botanical text-books in their new editions up with the advan- cing science, and his always large correspondence. His letters were chiefly on the questions upon which he was working, but with many touches on events of interest of the day, and little playful turns. He says in a letter to Dr. Engelmann, “1 well know - I have too many irons in the fire.” Unfortunately, Mr. Darwin destroyed all the letters he received before 1862, except the one published in his “ Life and Letters,” which is inserted later, as well as one to Sir Joseph Hooker taken from the same volume. The rest of those to Sir Joseph are mostly bound up in the botanical correspondence at ew. ae SR va es ee Fee ee ener ene a en &T. 41,] TO CHARLES WRIGHT. 389 Dr. Gray was an immense worker. After his morning mail was received and looked over, that he might answer any imperative questions, he too daylight for his scientific work, and, with pauses for meals, and the necessary interruptions that came at times, he kept steadily on all the day. He wrote his letters and his elementary botanical works mostly in the evening. But in his younger days his eyes were unusually strong, and he would work with the microscope by lamp-light as readily as by day- light. Though a steady and unwearying worker he was not rapid. He would throw aside sheet after sheet to be rewritten, especially if there was anything he wished to make particularly clear and strong, or any reasoning to be worked out from the soundest point of view. It was always a wonder to those about him that he could stand as he did the unceasing labor, but he was a sound sleeper even if the hours might be short, and of a vigorous, wiry, active tempera- ment, and when he did take a holiday, he took it heart- His rest and recreation were in journeys, longer or shorter, and every two or three years some lone outing would be taken, to give him the needed re- Srechmet. But he must always be busy even then, somewhere to go, something to see; rest in quiet seemed impossible to him for more than a day at a time. TO CHARLES WRIGHT. CAMBRIDGE, January 23, 1852. I am printing on “ Plante Wrightiane,” the first part of which (as I work in so much general matter, especially Tex-Mexican), to the end of Composit, will 390 CORRESPONDENCE. [1852, take 225 pages or more, with ten plates, — the most important memoir I ever wrote, and will indelibly fix our name on the Texan-New-Mexican Flora... . I have just found a letter of Sullivant’s, dated May 27, 1850, in which he says, “Send me by all means Wright’s Texan Mosses and Hepatice.” a fellow! as 1 wrote you before, he lat his wife while I was away, and was overwhelmed, as she was piles: to him, and as good a muscologist almost as he. . . You are in a fine field. Hold on and keep a good heart. I long to see what Colonel Graham is now bringing on tome... . June 5. There, my dear Wright, I consider myself very much of a gentleman! For your favor of the 12th April reached me only this afternoon, and now before the sun has gone down I am answering it! Your let- ter came very opportunely too. For, though Colonel Graham has been back so long, it was only yesterday that I got the collection he brought home with him to Indianola (and the seeds); and to-day I opened it and had looked over only two bundles. And I was say- ing to myself, Now if I only had Mr. Wright’s list with localities, I should do very well. And ahes my letters came from the office, yours, with said list in- closed, was among them. The plants look well, but I have only peeped into them yet. I am glad if you have found Amoreuxia malvafolia, but I have not yet hit upon it. I am still ey busy with college work, for a month longer, and with the Garden; and the Exploring Ex- pedition work has been piecabag me, and still will. ae ARNE ce copttag ch fe) Basil 3 laps #7. 41.] TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. 391 But I shall somehow distribute your 1851 collection very soon, name them up to the end of Composit, and in the course of the summer determine many of the monopetalous families. I have already named and described a few of these and some Apetale to please Colonel Graham, and named a new Pentstemon after him (which I have growing, too), which compliment seems to gratify him. By this time you will have received the index and plates of “ Plantze Wrightiane.” Copies are already in England, and I am about to dispatch many to France, Germany, ete. You are indeed an invaluable collector, though you do like to grumble now and then, and I hope the In- dians won’t catch you. If they must take a scalp or a head, there are others I could better spare. So take care of yourself. . TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. February 23, 1852. I carefully keep your flowering bit of Fendlera, ready to return it if Lindheimer does not get more, as I trust he will. It is the most interesting of North American genera, between Deutzia and Philadelphus, and shows plainly that both are saxifragaceous. . . . July 28. I am worked almost to distraction. But college work is now over and J can get on with fewer irons in the fire. I fear you are driven up hard also, by the sickly sea- son and cholera. I hope you may be able to give up practice by and by. . I have had fora ‘aed while a misunderstanding with 392 CORRESPONDENCE. [1852, Captain Wilkes about my work for the Exploring Ex- pedition botany. It is now made up, I think, or nearly, but I have had no pay from them for a long time, and they are a year behind in paying. I have got manuscript of several families all ready for the press, and some fine drawings. I am just now working up “ Plante Wrightianz,” 1851 collection, up to end of Composit, old stopping-place, but must dash beyond that soon... . TO W. J. HOOKER, Camprincr, December 4, 1852. Here is a discovery! I have to-day received by post from Dr. J. F. Beaumont, of Mountain Home, in the upper part of Alabama, specimens of a Tricho- manes, which he finds growing there under shelving rocks. I send you herewith the half of what is sent me, knowing you will be much interested in the dis- covery, for the first time, of a Trichomanes in the United States; and thinking that you will probably pronounce it to be a form of the T. radicans, though so much smaller than my Irish and West Indian speci- mens... . I have not specimens enough of T. radi- cans to satisfy myself entirely, and refer the question to your experienced judgment. Pray give me your opinion, for the addition of a single species to our few ferns, and especially one of his group, is a matter of moment to us, and worthy of a published notice. I should not be so greatly surprised now if Hyme- nophyllum ciliatum, credited by Willdenow to Vir- ginia, should turn up, but I still think there was some mistake about that; and I could find no specimen in Willdenow’s herbarium when I sought for it, in 1839. j F 3 3 i j ET. 42.) TO W. J. HOOKER. 393 Next Wednesday’s steamer, which takes this letter, will also take, for a short European tour, my good father-in-law, Mr. Loring, with Mrs. Loring, and Mrs. Gray’s brother Charles. A rather sudden determina- tion, but we have strongly urged the journey ever since the death of their dear little boy, the little Ben- jamin, who seemed given to be the comfort and stay of their declining years, who was born just before our return home, a year ago last summer. The rest and change are needful to Mr. Loring, also, from being worn down by his long-continued labors at the bar, of which he is perhaps the leader in Boston ; I am con- fident it will be of great benefit to him; and the Old World has much to interest a man of his refined taste. . . . And then Kew Garden is to them one of the wonders of the world, as well as a place with which they have, through us, so many pleasant associations. Should you w sales them to enjoy the privilege of seeing the Gardens under your own kind auspices, would you notify Mr. Loring through Boott (for I do not now know what will be their London address), of a day that would be agreeable and convenient to your- ene January 4, 1853. Wright will now soon be off in Ringgold’s North Pacific Surveying Expedition, to explore Behring Straits, Kurile Islands, the coast of Japan, if possible, and to winter at the Sandwich Islands. So we shall have no more New Mexican plants from him. My new memoir, “ Plante Wrightianz,” is now al- most all printed, and contains many novelties. I never had a collection so rich in entirely new things. 394 CORRESPONDENCE. [1853, I long to hear what you will say of the Trichomanes from Alabama which I sent you. With best wishes for the new year to you and all yours, I remain, Yours affectionately, Asa Gray. January 28, 1853. “ Tt never rains but it pours ” is an old adage suit- able to this meridian and illustrated by what I now send you, namely, a second Trichomanes from Ala- bama! discovered by the indefatigable Thomas M. Peters, Esq., of Moulton, who (and not Mr. Beaumont, it appears) was the first finder of Trichomanes radi- cans in Alabama. This one seems to me clearly a new one. . . I think it particularly appropriate in this case that it should bear the name of its discoverer, so I have called it Trichomanes Petersii, and have sent a little article on it and Trichomanes radicans to “ Silliman’s Journal.” Tn 1853 began Dr. Gray’s long correspondence with the Dean of St. Paul’s, —a friendship whose intimacy was ever increasing and which lasted through his life. TO R. W. CHURCH February 7, 1853. My pear Mr. Cuurcn, —Since I heard, which I did first from Mr. Clough,! that you were about to marry and take charge of a parish, I have been long- ing every time I wrote to England to add a line ex- pressing my most sincere congratulations. I hope you 1 Arthur Hugh Clough, 1819-1861. The poet was resident in America from November, 1852, to June, 1853. KT. 42.) POR: W. CHURCH. 395 will not think me too presuming if I make bold to do so, and if I ask you where your parish is, for I would gladly form some idea of where your home is to be. Pleasant and desirable on many accounts as an Oxford life must be, yet I cannot but think you more appropriately placed in the pleasant parsonage I can fancy, the centre of a little world of your own, and the spiritual guide of an attached body of parishion- ers, where you will be very happy and very useful. Still let us hope that the visit to Cambridge, New England, *S only deferred, to afford us a double grati- fication. I think you can sometimes leave your parish for thrée months, or even more with special leave, and the voyage is becoming shorter and cheaper every ear. I have looked through the “Times,” which I see regularly through the kindness of a friend, thinking that I might perchance see your appointment, presen- tation, or whatever it may be, mentioned; but in vain. By the way, I am glad to see that you have elected Mr. Gladstone. Your name on the Oxford Commit- tee makes me suppose you have not yet left Oxford. Dr. Albro has returned in restored health, and speaks with much gratification of his visit to Oxford, only regretting that your absence prevented his mak- ing your acquaintance until the last moment of his short stay. Mr. Clough brought me a letter from Maskelyne of W College. Circumstances, I am sorry to say, have yet prevented me from seeing him here as much as I could wish. I hope soon to know him better. He has excellent and influential acquaintances ; but one hardly sees what he is to do. 396 CORRESPONDENCE. [1853, Tf he holds Unitarian views, as I have been told, he will perhaps be more favorably situated, just in Boston or Cambridge, than in England, and probably meet more cultivated and more religious people of that persuasion than at home. But if he sympathizes rather with Francis Newman and that school, as some one tells me, I should think he would not find that class of people here very attractive to him. But I hope that is not his bent. I have no partiality for Unitarianism, though it is the faith of near and valued friends. I am an orthodox Presbyterian, as my fathers were. But in England I should be a Churchman, although a pretty low one, at least in some respects ; and I am a most hearty well-wisher to the Church of England. So pray, when settled in your Saeed a ee me a line to say where you are, and your parish church is ; for hankering after i saition is, as an Oxford man told me, a great failing of Americans. TO A. DE CANDOLLE. CAMBRIDGE, March 28, 1853. My DEAR Frienp, —I am all the more glad that I ean direct your attention to the fourth volume (new series) of the “ Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,” p. 382, where you will find your name enrolled as the sole Honorary Member for Swit- zerland. Ordinarily neither you nor I would be at all solici- tous for such recognition. I care not to have them except where (as in the Linnwan Society of London, the French Academy, and your own society of Ge- neva) I well know the nominations are strictly and conscientiously weighed, and where the list to be HT. 42.] TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 397 filled is a limited one. But we here prize the name of De Candolle so highly that we count it a privilege to have it on our foreign list. I should state that this sania, the oldest but one in America, was in a state of inactivity and hebe- tude since the death of its former president, Bow- ditch, till 1843, the year after I came to Cambridge, when it was determined, chiefly by some of my col- leagues in Cambridge, to restore it to life and vigor. It is now full of life. The number of its tice members is now limited to seventy-five, and they are chosen by a very formal process and a very rigid scrutiny, so as to have only the very best names in the several departments of knowledge. Formerly they were chosen without such care; so that there are names on the list that could not be placed there now. Hereafter the list will be a most select one. . . . Hereafter we will send our parcels through the Smithsonian Institution and through its agent, Mr. Hector Bossange, Paris. You justly praise the publi- cations of this institution. It is on the point of issuing another splendid volume ; and at least one a year will continue to be issued.! Liberal in its distribution, the Smithsonian Institu- tion looks to its exchanges as a means of building up a library valuable for scientific researches in this country. You may remember that, when at Geneva, -I ventured to ask you to recommend to the Société de Physique et d’Histoire Naturelle de Geneve, to vote its series of memoirs to the Smithsonian Institution. It also often has the distribution of a certain number of public documents of scientific value. I am about to ask its secretary to pro- cure for you, if possible, a copy of Frémont’s two reports, which you desire, — if (i late to procure it gratis, as I fear, to purchase the vol- ume at my expense. — 398 CORRESPONDENCE. [1853, But you thought it would not then be quite proper to request it. Now that the institution has given such evidences of its vigor and productiveness, aes that I can assure you it is only beginning to do its work, and that in number of volumes it will soon overtake you, I venture to renew the request which I was then requested to make; and I think that your society, with these assurances, and in view of the good offices of the Smithsonian in promoting Leiorcbicicos (at no small expense), would freely accord the earlier vol- umes of its memoirs, on your proposition. Dr. Harris! has made interesting researches on the plants cultivated by our aborigines, which I urge him to publish; but he is one of those persons who are never quite ready to print as long as they live. I have long suspected that Helianthus tuberosus came from North America. I should like to study from what indigenous species it comes. . . As to the “ Botany of the South Sea Explocg Ex- pedition,” the manuscript and the drawings are ready up nearly to the Leguminosee ; and the printing, — is not under my control, is about to commence. work will probably make three quarto volumes a 300 folio plates. I shall be sure to have a copy to send you. As to the specimens, there are few dupli- cates ; and of these I am not myself allowed to retain any. Possibly, hereafter, some may be awarded to me. That expedition did not land on the high Antarctic coasts it saw, and therefore made no collections there. Its Antarctic collection is all from Orange Harbor, Tierra del Fuego, and has little that is new. The most interesting part of the collection was made at the Sandwich and Feejee islands. 1 Thaddeus Wm. Harris, 1795-1856; librarian of Harvard College aud a distinguished entomologist, BT. 42.) TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. 399 My wife and I well remember what a charming place Vallon is, and retain pleasant memories of our trip to the Saleéve under the charge of Madame De Candolle, despite the bad weather which spoiled the view. We should delight to revisit Switzerland. Having no children, it is not impossible that we may do so; but the time, I fear, is far in the future. .. . I have written a much longer letter than I had intended when I began. Believe me to remain, yours very faithfully, RAY. TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. CamBrincE, July 14, 1853. My prear ENGELMANN, — This cover has been ad- dressed to you for a long while, but I have delayed to fill and close it, not so much because you had not written, for I knew you must be very busy now, but because the convenient time has not exactly come. For I have been very busy. College work done up only last week; printing of “ Exploring Expedition Botany,” in which I have read proofs up to 220 pages, and gave to-night finished manuscript (except a few crooked points to settle in a family or two) up to the end of Rosacee (which will make about 450 pages. It fills up fast with the open pages adopted in these reports). I shall carry on the volume to 550 or 650 pages, and the plates folio, already 56, shall carry up to 100, if Ican. There is next some tough work in Myrtaces and Melastomacez ; but as to the latter Nau- din has much cleared the way. Those done, and I think I may venture to work part of the time on the Lindheimer, Fendler, and Wright Monopetale. Agassiz returned most deliuhiod with his visit to you, and we talked much of you. .. . > 400 CORRESPONDENCE. [1853, 1 am afraid to touch Gregg’s Mexican plants, for fear of the time they would consume. In “ Exploring Expedition,” I branch out little or none, except a few notes in Malvacez, and probably more in Composite. lf I could do the work abroad, I could work up collateral things most advantageously ; but the means here at disposal are too poor. Still, you will be pleased with my volume i. when I finish and send it to you (the letterpress this fall !). No specimens scarcely of Cactacee in collection Exploring Expedition, —a drawing or two. I shal send them on to you presently. . I grieve to tell you that Adrien ae Jussieu is dead. Cancer in the stomach, his tedious malady proves to have been. It makes a deep impression on the sci- entific men, and the public, too, in Paris. He was much my most intimate correspondent in France, a true friend, and a charming man. You know, perhaps, that Moquin-Tandon has suc- ceeded the late Achille Richard at L’EKeole de Méde- cine. Tulasne, I suppose, will be the new professor at the Jardin des Plantes; at least he ought to be, as he is the most able man. No farther news since my last. Agassiz looks poorly and says he is not well... . I never could get Fouquiera up. To-day I have sown some seeds, and put on my own table, by the window, to watch. ... 18th August. Agassiz handed me your note about the Compass plant. I took him at once into the Garden, to see Sil- phium laciniatum, terebinthinaceum, and pinnatifidum. He agreed there was no direction to be made out, #7. 42.] TO W. J. HOOKER. 401 one way more than another. The cauline leaves all tend to become vertical (as in several other Compo- site), but present neither face nor edge north. But three years ago Lapham of Wisconsin wrote me that, though the plant near Milwaukee showed no “ polarity ” (and so he never believed in it), yet on going farther west, on the prairies, he found it did generally turn all to the north there. If I remember aright, though, he said the surfaces of the leaf look north and south. You say the edges? How is this? Compare notes with Lapham. . . . What do you think I am about now? Revising gen- era of Myrtaceze for Exploring Expedition collection. In these exotic orders I frequently find the genera so at loose ends that I cannot make the plants of our collection lie comfortably till I have given the genera a good shaking up. I should be tempted to do much more of this if I could work at Hooker’s, or in Paris. It is quite as well not, as it would cost no end of time. . . I have fodca some Fouquiera seedlings up in the Garden. I am right about it; not Thier The leaf is not axillary and its petiole inclosed in the spine ; but the spine is a hardened inferior portion of the petiole that a and from which the rest falls away clean. . . TO W. J. HOOKER. CamBrincE, August 3, 1853. My pear Str Wiiir1am,—I will endeavor to get some account of Shakerdom for you. They are a queer people indeed. Manilla paper! is made of old manilla rope, which 1 Dr. hag sent to Kew manilla paper for the genus covers in the herbariu 402 CORRESPONDENCE. [1853, is largely used by our shipping. But what plant yields the manilla hemp for this cordage I have not the means of knowing, that is, whether the Musa textilis or no. I have been promised specimens of the stem of the plant, ete. But the climate makes our countrymen indolent there, and forgetful. 1 will ask for statistics as to the paper manufacture. . I shall be pleased to have you figure as many of our ferns as you can; and pray give names to all new species without hesitation. They will be more fitly named by the describer than by any one else. I note with satisfaction what you write about genera of ferns. This pushing a single character (as vena- tion) without regard to consequences, and giving it the same importance when it does not accord with habit as when it does, is the fault of most botanolo- gists who restrict their view to one subject or one idea only. I am glad that you will carefully revise the genera on your own judgment. By the way, the fern I sent you last spring, and which you called Asplenium montanum, Willd. (a species I used to know well), struck the collector (Beaumont), as it did me, to be different. Pray col- late, and perhaps figure it, as well as the ordinary A. montanum, I was grieved to hear of the death of Adr. de Jus- sieu, with whom I have had a very pleasant corre- spondence for the last three years, and to whom I was attached as to no other Frenchman. His late letters were so cheerful and lively, and even hopeful, that the news of his death took me by surprise, notwithstanding the steady failure of his health for a long while. . . . e remember with interest that dear Harvey sets out to-morrow on his long voyage. eam eee xT. 43.] TO R. W. CHURCH. 4038 TO R. W. CHURCH. Christmas Eve, 1853. My pear Mr. Cuurcn, —It is a good time to remember old friends and to bring up, as well as one may, arrears of neglected duty. I have long unac- countably neglected to acknowledge your letter of the 24th August, and to thank you most heartily for the interesting volume of your collected reviews, which reached me a little earlier (1 know not how it was so long delayed between New York and Cambridge), and which I have received and read with much pleasure, that is, all I have yet read. For I am saving the article on Dante for my first leisure hour. The first I read was the article on Pascal and Ultramontanism, of which I greatly admire the delicate and thorough handling. I wish I could send you something of any interest. But I am not well enough satisfied with the elemen- tary work which I use as a text-book for my lower classes to offer it; and besides that I have published, since last in England, only memoirs of the botany of our new western regions, one volume of the botany of a Government South Sea Expedition, ete., all dread- fully dry and technical. I have been unusually busy this year, and am just now especially so, having to complete the preparation of nine lectures on Vegetation, which I am to give be- fore the Smithsonian Institution at Washington next month. I do not much fancy popular lecturing, and do this only to please a very valued friend, Professor Henry, the secretary of this institution. This over, I shall return to my regular plodding work at home, with great satisfaction. 404 CORRESPONDENCE. [1853, I do not wonder that you feel a little nervous about the result of the experiment at Oxford. I can well understand it, and if I were an Oxford man, which I should count it a high honor to have been, I should share the feeling. I count it an excellent thing that the new enactments were framed by friendly hands, and are not very sweeping. As far as I can judge from the election of the present council, those of the Move- ment party by no means have it all their own way. It seems to me that the admission of Dissenters to the A. B. degree is a wise measure, and one that will do no harm to the university nor the church. But I see not how they can go further. It would not be right that they should pass to the A. M. and share in the government of the university. Avs position at Oxford or Cambridge which allows of matrimony must be a desirable one for a person of scholarly pursuits. I can hardly think you will pass your life at Whatley, but trust you will have some better preferment and a wider field of duty be- fore long, before Mrs. Gray and myself will be likely to pay you the visit you kindly solicit, for I see no near prospect of our revisiting England, though no- thing would please us more. . . . TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. 7th December, 1853. I got dreadfully behindhand with everything. “ Exploring Expedition Botany ” stopped printing for a long time, but is now renewed; three hundred or more pages are printed, and copy sent to printer up to Leguminose (excl.). Meanwhile, to look over Brackenridge’s manuscript of the Filices, to turn a loose anprsininatical lingo into English, and his Peseta pe ata aL oka gi ree hoe AY Nera tt pe ator - = pee ee ee ad Se ay eee airy ee ek ee a ae ee ee ee baa #T. 43.] TO CHARLES WRIGHT. 405 English characters into Latin, is a tedious job ; then to read his proofs is another. But if I did not do all this, very bad work indeed would be made of it. Late in October Mrs. Gray and I went to New York for a week, to visit Torrey and to see the New York Exhi- bition. Returning, I had to bear my part ina course of lectures, which the American Academy gave to the public (to replenish our publication funds) ; and to prepare and deliver my two lectures, on the relations of plants to the sun, cost me almost the whole of November. Sprague is too slow, and too feeble in health, to do half what I want done, let alone others. I must import an additional draughtsman. If you know any in Germany good enough, who would come out, let me know at once. If not, I must try at Paris. TO CHARLES WRIGHT. May 21, 1853. The Kurile Islands will be a fine field; and I hope you can do much among them. Collect some speci- mens of everything you see there. .. . CamBrRIDGE, February 19, 1854. Sinner that I am, I have four letters of yours un- answered ; the last from Simon’s Bay, November 4th. The fact is I do not find time to write half the letters I ought, and those, like yours, which are not to be dispatched on some particular day, I am sure to post- pone and neglect interminably. It seems so vague, too, to be writing to a man, you know not where, somewhere on the other side of the world, and you know not when the epistle may reach him, say six months hence. os 406 CORRESPONDENCE. (1854, Nor is it easy to reflect and remember what I have been doing, so as to tell you. I forgot to tell you, too, that Thurber! called on me and offered his plants collected under Bartlett. I have written out the greater part up to the end of Composite, my old sticking-place, a number of new things, mostly from deeper down in Sonora than you went, and in southwest California. Beyond doubt Torrey will work up a part. I shall merely furnish characters and botanical remarks to Thurber, and let him do all the rest of the talk. Bartlett is still in hopes that the Senate will print a great report for him. I greatly doubt if they do. If so, Thurber’s botany will go as an appendix. If not, he will make a memoir of the things up to Composite, and the striking things beyond, and afterwards I may lick up the rest in the general continuation of “ Plante Wrightiane,” ete. Meanwhile the United States minister at Mexico has been making a treaty, now before our Senate, for buying a further slice of Chihuahua and Sonora, to take in Lake Guzman and the Sonora country some way south of where you went, that is, below San Pe- dro. So there will have to be a new survey if this treaty is ratified, and a chance of more botany. I wish you were to be here to attend to it; only you have already taken off the cream of that country, and can now do more, and find more novelty, in some of the countries you are going to From Governor Stevens’s party, from Minnesota to Washington Territory, north of Oregon, bundles of 1 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; ee editor of the American Agri- culturist ; a student of grasses. aE ta ale tec hes oes landed week ea ced! WE ewe me a>) eee Un Ue ce ee ee te Te ne Mea ep eames eich an. 43.] TO CHARLES WRIGHT. 407 plants are sent home to Baird and by him forwarded to me. Wretched specimens, and nothing new among them! .. . Captains at sea are very apt to get a little crusty, which should be minded just as little as possible. I expect to hear that, after getting well settled and at home in the Vincennes, you find yourself comfortable and all pleasant. Gentlemanly conduct and devotion to one’s pursuits will at length make one respected, anywhere. When you return, I trust you will yourself prepare the botanical report of your eruise. I hope so, for your own sake, both scientifically and because your doing so will keep you on pay some years longer on shore. I will aid you, if I live, most willingly over knotty points, ete.; perhaps would like to do certain families further than that; not, if you will take hold of it yourself, as you ought to do. I suppose you will have found nothing new at the Cape, though the vegetation there must have been novel to you. It will be pleasant, in the long cruises, to study yourself the plants collected at the last port. Did you get any nice Alge? Look out for them hereafter. When you are on surveying-ground, you may prob- ably be transferred back to the steamer again. Presently your letters will be coming to me via California. “I hope to continue to hear such good accounts of your health and activity. Do not measure my interest in your letters by the number I myself write, though I mean to write oftener in future. No news here, scientific or other. Mr. Carey, you know, has gone back to England to live, and has married a young wife there, moreover. 408 CORRESPONDENCE. (1854, TO W. J. HOOKER. AMBRIDGE, March 28, 1854. I send a glass bottle filled er the pulp and seed of Cereus giganteus as gathered by the natives, and used for food, the same as what I formerly sent you a small quantity of in a letter, trusting the seeds would grow, as they are not subjected to heat in making this jam. I have some pieces of the wood of the great Wel- lingtonia tree, which | estimate to be not older prob- ably than the Christian era. Torrey has no fruit, nor have I; but there are some cones in Philadelphia. The wood is very like that of the red-wood, i. e., Tax- odium sempervirens. I hope we shall get the male flowers, but I have no correspondent in California, and Torrey no very good or energetic ones. How hard it is to believe that there is a European war! I trust it will be short. Some of our own peo- ple are behaving very badly about Cuba, but it is mostly talk for effect, and will lead to nothing, we ope. TO GEORGE THURBER. CamMBRIDGE, 20th April, 1854. Desar Tuurser,— When yours of the 17th ar- rived, and till now, I have been too much absorbed in college duties to consider it, as I now rapidly will. Ranunculus 441. J never liked naming a plant after a person who has had nothing to do with it, as collector, deseriber, and nothing else; therefore do not like R. Huntiana. We will wait for some other mode of complimenting Mr. Hunt. Moreover, I have hit on a name which pleases me tolerably, viz., R. hydrocharoides, which, by your leave, we will adopt. Thurberia specific name? That is a question to BT. 43.] TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 409 consider, and no very pat name at once applicable both to the species and the discoverer occurs to me. “Thurberia palmata” might pass, and would angli- cize into “the handy Thurber,? but then the end has only three fingers. “'T. tridactyla ” would meet this ; but only birds are tridactylous ; besides, the uppermost leaves are entire. Taking another tack, from its smoothness, we might say, T. glabra or T. levis; or, as I believe you have not a strong beard, T. imberbis. But, on the whole, perhaps it mill be as well to indicate merely the nearest eines of the genus, and eall it “Thurberia thespesioides,” as it is nearest Thespesia. Take your choice, though, of any of the above, to which add “ T. rosea,” if the color of the flower warrants that name. TO A, DE CANDOLLE. CaMBRIDGE, June 1, 1854. My pear Frienp, — It was with great pleasure that I received from you, two days ago, your letter of the 2d May. I counted myself your debtor, although, indeed, my last letter of 18th October is of later date than yours of the 1st October, which it crossed on the ocean, and I was only waiting until I could announce a small envoi to you, namely, that of a copy of the 1st volume of the “ Botany of the United States Ex- ploring Expedition in the South Seas,” which has been more than a year in printing. This 4th volume C77 pages) is at length happily printed off, and just in time, too, for sending you a copy (unbound, direct from the printing-office at Philadelphia) in the an- nual envoi of the Smithsonian Institution. The atlas, of 100 plates in folio, which should ac- company this volume, is by no means ready, owing 410 CORRESPONDENCE. [1854, to the slowness as well as the feeble health of the artist, Mr. Sprague; perhaps, even, it may not reach you before next year, by the same mode of convey- ance. I have now, indeed, some hopes that the “ Flora of North America” may soon be carried through the Gamopetalz, I elaborating at the same time, in a gen- eral memoir, the Gamopetale of Wright’s, Fendler’s, and Lindheimer’s collections in continuation ; a pretty formidable matter ! In a separate small parcel you will find (in the Smithsonian envoi) some brochures for you... . Among them is a short article in “ Silliman’s Jour- nal,” accompanying a reprint of a great part of Dr. Hooker’s Introductory Essay to the “ Flora of New Zealand.” Agassiz here is committed to the view op- posite to Hooker’s, in an equally extreme form. I wished to interpose some criticisms to both views, but had only time to touch briefly on one or two points. I wait with impatience for your work on “ Géographie Botanique,” expecting very much from it, from your great ability, long study of the subject, and fairness of mind. Indeed, I was daily expecting to learn that it was published ; and now you tell me that the print- ing is barely begun; the “ Prodromus,” volume 14, not yet begun! But I am one of the last persons who ought to complain of delay in execution. .. . From the family of the late M. de Jussieu, you should receive a copy of the “ Epistole Linnzano- Jussieuane,” with our late friend’s notes, ete., the last scientific work of his too short life! I intended to 1 From a letter to Sir W. J. Hooker: “ Curious that this correspon- dence, after lying so long, should at length be printed and published in New England.’ — A. G. ee ee oe ges usa Ne ee EAL epee hie SS Lee een ae pa te Rasch bas zT, 44,] TO W. J. HOOKER. 411 send you a copy myself, but at the request of M. Ra- mond I surrendered the small extra edition to his charge for distribution. In due time you will have a copy in the volume of the “ Memoirs of the Amer- ican Academy” also. My daguerreotype of M. Jus- sieu was most opportunely taken. His family, having no recent portrait, have solicited the loan of it, to aid in the preparation of an engraved likeness; and I have placed it in their hands. I delayed the last sheet of the “ Correspondence ” long, awaiting an answer to my request for some ma- terials (notices, éloges, etc.), from which I could pre- pare something of a biographical nature to append, but I received nothing, at least until too late. In the May number of the “ Kew Journal of Botany,” Hooker has reprinted my brief note; but by some accident, the marks of quotation are omitted from the two last aes which saa as if written by the editor the “Journal.” . Believe me to remain, my dear friend and honored colleague, as ever, your sincerely attached, Asa Gray. TO W. J. HOOKER. CAMBRIDGE, February 5, 1855. My pear Sm Wiuram, — The inclosed, from our good friend Dr. Short,! and the box it advises, came while I was at Washington, from which I have just returned. Mrs. Gray and I have enjoyed our month’s holiday very much; though I was kept busy enough, 1 Charles W. Short, M. D., 1794-1862; professor of materia med- ica in the University of Transylvania, Lexington, Ky. Removed later ille. Dr. Gray named for him Shortia galacifolia, discovered in Michaux’s herbarium in Paris, in 1839. 412 CORRESPONDENCE. [1855, having to deliver nine lectures in three weeks. We had arranged to have a few days at New York, in which I could work with Dr. Torrey; but the good man was called off to Washington on business just as I left that place, and we crossed en route, and I came on home in consequence. I am very glad Mr. Beitges was pleased with the live plants I sent. Please remind him that I should like to share in the distribution of seeds this spring. Anc if I find time to make out a short list, I may ask for some live plants again. .. . ave a Cereus giganteus six inches high, and I saw several others. They have no hair, and appear very unlike C. senilis. . . . There is an authentic account in some numbers of “ Silliman’s Journal” last year of the size of that prostrate trunk ( Wellingtonia-W ashingtonia). Mr. Blake, at Washington, told me something of it, but I forget the numbers. I will ask him, as he is a reliable person. But 450 feet is rather too tall. So they would talk about the tree that was felled being 3,000 years old (and took in Lindley), whereas it was not quite 1,300! It appears to grow much faster than S. sempervirens.! . . . 1 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 “ Her- cules.” His memoranda of the size, ete., were: — Height when standing was 315 feet. A section at 21 feet from ground was 6 feet 104 inches radius, on the line counte Layers Rate of growth. Counted - 1,500 First century. . 10} in. radius Uneounted inal (est) « 30 400 years . a7} * centre 10|Last centary . . 383° “ Growth to2i feet ‘“ . 10|Last 400 years . 14% “ Estimated age (years) . . 1550 | x7, 44.) TO CHARLES WRIGHT. 413 A great loss in Forbes’s death. I have been trembling lest I should hear that Dr. Hooker is chosen to the chair at Edinburgh, which would give him very good pay, I suppose, and he would fill the place well, but it would take him away from special botany, which would be a great pity. . TO A. DE CANDOLLE. May 29, 1855. The class which leaves college this summer have be- spoken photographic likenesses, on paper, of their pro- fessors, — my colleagues and myself, — and this gives me an opportunity of obtaining from the artist some duplicate copies of that for which I sat, and which Mrs. Gray pronounces a very good likeness. It is not so much vanity that induces me to ask you to accept of the copy I inclose, as the hope of get- ting yours in return, if that same style be adopted in Geneva, and be as little expensive as here, — to add to the already considerable number of portraits of bota- nists which make the chief adornment of my rooms, — among which the fine engraving of your distinguished father is conspicuous. I need not say that I should be glad to place the likeness of the son near to that of the father. Ever, my dear De Candolle, Your sincere and faithful, Asa Gray. TO CHARLES WRIGHT. August 28, 1855. For a long while now I have been waiting for a good evening when I was not too tired to write you a long letter to meet you in California, in return, though a poor return, for your several nice letters from China. 414 CORRESPONDENCE. [1855, It is now time my letter was off, — when lo and be- hold ! — Yesterday morning I was sitting here busy with steady work and not expecting much interruption ; now, this evening, my passage is taken, my trun packed, I am hurriedly closing up affairs, and to-mor- row morning go on board steamer America and sail for Liverpool. I have to go and look after my bro- ther-in-law, who is sick in Paris of a fever. No one of the family can go but me, and I manage to find the time. Mr. Loring pays the traveling charges, and off I go, to be gone, however, not over two months, per- haps not so long; a week in Paris, another at Kew, a few days more in England; this must repay me (be- sides the consciousness of having done my duty) for some twenty odd days of discomfort at sea ! What have I been doing of late? Not much ac- complished, i. e., published. Of my “ Plante Nove Thurberiane ”’ and “Notes on Vaveea and Rhytidan- dra” I have sent you copies already, but I will send you more. A useful article on the Smithsonian Institution, in July number of “ Silliman,” probably you have seen in the “ Journal;” never mind, I send you a separate copy by mail. Some critical notices which I have no copies of. What I am about doing, I can always talk largely of. Iam preparing a new edition of the “ Manual of Botany of the Northern United States,” and a new elementary work! of a familiar character, to go with it, separate and with original pictures on wood by Sprague, and I am to finish the “ Flora” volume and “Plante Wrightiane” with it. I have determined 1 First Lessons in Botany. x7, 44.) TO W. J. HOOKER. 415 Berlandier’s plants up to end of Composite. Also I have done, along with Torrey, the botany of several expeditions across the continent for railroad surveys, which are soon to be published. Work goes slowly and I grow old. This little holiday will not be a bad thing for me, though it puts me back a little. TO W. J. HOOKER. CAMBRIDGE, October 23, 1855. Now that I am quietly settled at home again, my episode seems almost like a dream, —a very pleasant one, however, since it gave me the pleasure of seeing once more some most valued and near friends. I was absent only six weeks and one day, of which twenty- two days were passed upon the water. I found all well here on my return, but I was deeply grieved to learn the news of our beloved friend Dr. Torrey’s bereavement. It was about a month ago that the companion of his life, almost from his youth, was removed to a better world, after an illness of only afew days. . .. She was one of the most actively good, self-denying persons I ever knew. There are many to mourn at her departure out of her own fam- ily, especially among the poor and the distressed. . he was one of my earliest and best friends, one to whom I owe more than to almost any person; and I feel the loss as I should that of a near and dear rela- tive. I wrote you a line, with some inclosures, while at sea, and posted it at Halifax, N. S. When I send the package from ‘Highton, 1 1 wish 1 Isaac F. Holton, M. D., 1813-1874; teacher and professor of natural science in Vermont, pa missionary pastor in Illinois. Pub- lished in 1857 New Granada, Twenty Months in the Andes. 416 CORRESPONDENCE. [1855, also to send you live seedlings of a palm from Sonora, Mexico, raised from seeds gathered by Thurber, and one or two other things. I do not forget the large “cypress knees” I prom- ised, which will be rather striking in your famous museum, and I look out for an opportunity to send by sailing vessel direct to London. Remember me affectionately to Lady Hooker (for whom Mrs. Gray incloses a few lines) and most cor- dially to Mr. Bentham, who so kindly came down from the country to give me the opportunity of seeing him, for which I am greatly obliged. P. S.—I forgot to tell you that, by the hands of Hon. Miss Murray (who returns to England by this week’s steamer), I send you the September number of “Silliman’s Journal.” Should she forget to send it to you, please remind her when she comes to Kew, as assuredly she will, to talk about her Florida new fern. I have filled up the Ward case which she brought over, also a box of American plants which she takes, I suppose, for Mr. Fox Strangways. Her various boxes and packages will nearly fill the ship, I should think. Miss Murray is a most lively, most active person, has traveled widely through the country, and trav- ersed rough places, such as no other woman past sixty ever did. She has seen a great deal, but heard very little, I should think, as she talks incessantly, and in a lively, interesting way, too. You will not be disappointed by the suppression of her manuscript by her English friends, I suppose, for she is fully determined to rush into print, to print her journal just as it was written from day to day; for she now feels she has a mission to rescue the South ARE a ae haere es Kes AR Rare: fenra Huaa peer Sas Sigpan SN ) Se sa ye Sate ones ¥ s i Nee See ANNs ioe Mere anne hese deta ( Weis eeu = ee : ee car nace eames Sy ble ne aN am yal aa ae eee Sone xT. 44.] TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. 417 from the obloquy and wroug heaped upon it by us of the North, and by England. Save the mark! At any rate, her journal will be piquant. T am anxious to know how far we can economically use the post for the transmission of printed matter. Perhaps I could safely send you “ Silliman’s Journal ” in this way. As an experiment I now send you our University catalogue. No, it will not do, I see, for anything weighing over two ounces or three. Beyond this the rates increase woefully. . . . TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. 18th October, 1855. Yours of August 30th (answered by my wife) was written when I was one day at sea. Yours of Octo- ber 13, which arrived to-day, was written two days after I reached home again. I had two very pleasant voyages, on the whole, and not long, ten and a half and eleven and a half days; eleven days in Paris (where I was detained a little by a severe cold on my lungs) and a week in England, mostly at London and Kew. I found my brother-in-law so convalescent that I might have stayed at home, and I brought him home with me in good condition. We had hoped, till the last moment, to get places in the steamer of the 13th October, and to have had a fortnight more in Eng- land. But all the places had been engaged for months, and nobody was giving up berths up to the time we sailed ; so we had to come in steamer of the 29th ult., where we got a good stateroom by great luck, though the vessel was greatly crowded. Dr. Joseph D. Hooker (whom I had wanted to see for some time) being away in Germany, and time being extremely valuable to me here, I was on the whole very glad to get home. 418 CORRESPONDENCE. [1855, The naturalists at Paris were en vacance, and mostly away. I saw only Brongniart, Spach, Gay, Dr. Mon- tagne, and Trécul (who sent, I believe, some pam- phlets for you; the package is not yet unpacked), and my good friend Vilmorin. Boissier was there from Geneva. In England I spent all the little time I could com- mand at dear Hooker’s at Kew; and Bentham, then in the country, came down to see me. I made a long and interesting call on Robert Brown, who is very old, but full of interest. I shall not again see this Nestor of botanists, as well as facile princeps, in this world. Hooker was much delighted when I told him you were coming next spring to see him at Kew. He in- sisted upon taking me over to see the Cactus house, and all through it, so that I might tell you what a mass of Cactez there are there ; and he will be much pleased to have you work among them. He spoke about his Cuscutez, but was not at all displeased at your retaining them; begged you would work them up if possible before returning them. You will be charmed with Sir William when you see him. As to the “ Manual,” my plan, as at present advised, is to cross the line of slavery a little, to take in Ken- tucky and Virginia; this makes the real division, in botanical geography, between North and South. It should be Northern ground, too, down to this line: for north of it slave labor is good for nothing ; and there would be no slaves there, except for the Southern market. I cannot take in Missouri, for I must make the Mississippi my boundary. But all your St. Louis plants cross into Illinois, do they not? Tell me how this is. I shall get at work at the new edition soon. I shall first press on the “ Lessons ” a little further. HT. 44.] TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 419 About Fouquiera ; I have examined it here repeat- edly on the live plant, which every year prolongs its main axis an inch or two. An took leaves to Providence to show there, especially to remove any lingering doubt on Torrey’s mind. For Torrey would long have it that the spine was a primary leaf, and that an axillary leaf adhered to it by its petiole. He now knows better. I just saw Agassiz. He looks well and strong.... I read Alphonse De Candolle’s “ Géographie Bota- nique Raisonnée”’ on the voyage home: a most able work it is, full of interesting matter very methodically arranged. Hooker and Thomson’s “Flora Indica,” vol. i., is famous for its able introductory essay, ete. TO A. DE CANDOLLE. October 27, 1855. Your welcome letter of the Tth of August duly reached me. I meant to have surprised you by an answer dated at Paris; but the eleven days I passed there were too busily occupied to allow it. M. Bois- sier will have told you of my sudden voyage, and the cause of it. I was absent from home only six weeks and a day; and twenty-two days of the forty-three were passed on the water. On returning home I found here: 1. The excellent lithographed portrait of yourself, a pleasing and pretty good likeness. Of the three copies I have offered one to Torrey, the other to Short. 2. The copy of “Géographie Botanique,” which you so kindly addressed to me. (I have already learned that Agassiz and Darlington have theirs; but Torrey not his, and I have directed inquiries to be made.) This was not my first introduction to the 420 CORRESPONDENCE. [1855, book ; for I bought a copy of Masson in Paris, to read on the voyage, when, I could have more leisure than at home. And I carefully read it then (after having dispatched Hooker and Thomson’s “ Flora Indica”) up as far as to p. 1087, when I was obliged by the close of the voyage to break off, at a very in- teresting point; and I cannot yet resume the reading. I cannot sufficiently express my profound admiration of this book, so thorough and conscientious, so capital in its method, and embodying such a vast amount of facts well discussed ; it might well be the work of a long life. I have marked in many places points on which I may have a word to say, sometimes little de- tails to add or correct, sometimes a criticism to hazard. If time (which is now precious to me) permit, I will write a series of articles on it for “ Silliman’s Journal,’ which will serve to make the work gener- ally known to our people, and in which I can insert any commentaries I have time and room for. One article I will devote to plants introduced into this country from Europe. Now that you have so well col- lected and digested the principal information, it will be easy to complete and correct some points; and this may be useful to you hereafter, as well as to me. . . « I will procure from Dr. Harris any information he has collected about the potato, which, if Raleigh took it from Virginia to England, must have been brought to Virginia from South America. It was certainly unknown to our aborigines, who, however, along with maize, cultivated beans (Phaseoli) and squashes (Cu- curbite). Dr. Hooker had written to me, eulogizing your work in the — terms. I missed seeing him when in England 4 : : ie xT. 45.) TO W. J. HOOKER. 421 Agassiz speaks most highly of it; but I think he has only looked rapidly through its pages as yet. . I am at this moment preparing to begin the pr a ing of the 2d edition of my “ Mearns of the Botany of the Northern States.” . In consequence of seis ile I shall take pains to classify the introduced plants, according to the degree of naturalization, ete. Many thanks for sending me your portrait. I am already quite rich in the likenesses of botanists, many of which adorn the walls of my apartments. . . . Believe me to remain, my dear friend, yours very faithfully and truly, Asa Gray. TO W. J. HOOKER. CAMBRIDGE, February 25, 1856. My pear Sir Writtam,— Holton is bringing out a book upon New Granada which will be interest- ae The cypress knee sent was the best and handsomest IT had, though not the largest. I am glad it pleases you. But you mistook what I said, or meant to say, which was, that tucked away in the hollow you would find placed a specimen of a forming knee, not much bigger than your knuckle, on a piece of root a foot or so long. Was this overlooked or lost? Please tell me; for I can replace it with another, and phy siolo- gically it would be well to show the formation in its various stages. . . I want to send i a book by a young friend of ours, Olmsted, on the seaboard slave States,’ an admi- rable eal full of information, and lively withal. 1 A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, with Remarks on their Economy. By Frederie Law Olmsted. New York, 1856. 422 CORRESPONDENCE. [1856, I wait for an opportunity. Lady Hooker will be interested in it. Our united warm regards to her. Thanks to the Duke for anything to facilitate trans- mission of printed matter. But it is still high; for example, your “Journal,” which I get by post, costs 6d. each number, paid in London, and about 1d. more paid here. There is still room for improvement. I dare not send you “ Silliman’s Journal” yet by post. June 30, 1856. Charles Wright, who was in the North Pacific Expedition under Ringgold and Rogers, has left his ship at California instead of making the voyage round Cape Horn, and crossed over the Nicaragua route, in- tending to botanize there some months. Finding him- self there among our vile filibustering people, and all in confusion, however, he was soon obliged to come on home. He is awaiting the arrival of his ship, and will not till this autumn be able to touch his Pacific collections, of which the best and principal were made in Hongkong, Bonin, and the Loo Choo Islands and Japan. That they are not larger is not his fault. Wright has a perfect passion for collecting plants ; and already begins to plan other explorations. To satisfy his cravings for a while, I have proposed to him to go to St. Iago de Cuba, and explore that end of the island. What do you think of it? Has any botanist collected there? Would it be too like Jamaica to offer much novelty? But to return. In Nicaragua, Wright collected a goodly quantity of seeds, one set of which he wishes me to send to ss a present to Kew Gardens, as I understand it. . . By the way, it was most lucky that I hurried up and had sent on to you the copy of Brackenridge’s zT, 45.] TO W. J. HOOKER. 423 “ Filices ;” for a fire in Philadelphia has consumed all of the poor fellow’s edition of the volume except ten copies which had been sold mostly in Europe. A sad and a heavy loss to B., who had no insurance, and something to me who had advanced to him the paper for printing it on, which now the poor fellow is in no condition to pay for. I have not even a copy of the atlas myself, but I shall get one from the gov- ernment plates, which are preserved. Brackenridge utterly despairs of reprinting it. But possibly the government will set up the type for him again, as they have also lost a part of their small impression. Otherwise the book will have the value of excessive rarity, if it has no other. . . May 25, 1857. I hear with delight that you are meditating a trip to America, and I write forthwith to express my own and Mrs. Gray’s and my good father-in-law’s earnest hope that you will come over, even if it be for a few weeks only. The rest of the voyage cannot but be useful to so busy a person as you constantly are, and a run through the country,-and a sight of the Yankee world, would interest you. At the Montreal scientific meeting you would see several old friends and many new ones. Torrey, Greene, Darlington,! James,’ ete., would be half frantic with pleasure at the thought of seeing you; so it will not do to hint at such a thing, until you give me authority; and as for my wife and m 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, ete. ‘‘ A most faithful botanist. is forte was the clear and accurate description of plants ” 2 Thomas Potts James, 1804-1882. Born in Radnor, Pista. : proficient and authority in bryology. on) 424 CORRESPONDENCE. [1856, me, we will look after you like dutiful children, will go with you to Niagara, or to Lake Superior, if you will go so far, for there is nothing would give us so an. pleasure as a visit from you; and if you would bring Lady Hooker or Mrs. Evans, or both, with you, it would be charming. The voyage is nothing to speak of, traveling here is easy and rapid, although not so very comfortable, as in England, and a good deal of the country can be seen in a few weeks without much fatigue. Pray do come, and exceedingly gprclan Your affectionate and faithful A. GRA TO JAMES D. DANA. December 13, 1856. My pear Dana, ne duly received the sheets I asked for. The right way to bring a series of pretty interest- ing general questions towards settlement is perhaps in hand (though I do not expect myself to bring any-’ thing important to bear on it), viz., for a number of totally independent naturalists, of widely different - pursuits and antecedents, to environ it on all sides, work towards a common centre, but each to work perfectly independently. Such men as Darwin, Dr. Hooker, De Candolle, Agassiz, and myself, — most of them with no theory they are bound to support, — ought only to bring out some good results. And the less each one is influenced by the other’s mode of viewing things the better. For my part, in respect to the bearings of the distribution of plants, ete., I am determined to know no theory, but to see what the facts tend to show, when fairly treated. On the subject of species, their nature, distribu- tion, what system in natural history is, ete., certain SE ip Sea secae (iGo kag a is £7. 46.) TO JAMES D. DANA. 425 inferences are slowly settling themselves in my mind, or taking shape ; but on some of the most vexed ques- tions I have as yet no opinion whatever, and no very strong bias, thanks, partly, to the fact that I can think of and investigate such matters only now and then, and in a very desultory way. I cannot say that I believe in centres of radiation for groups of species. From Darwin’s questions to me I think I perceive some of the grounds on which he would maintain it. One is attended to on page TT of the January number [of ‘ Silliman’s Journal” ], but I am not clear that they are not just as susceptible of other interpretation. But as to a centre of radiation for each separate species, I must say I have a bias that way. You seem to have also, and you can best judge whether this, combined with geological considerations, would not involve centres of radiation for groups of species as well, to a certain extent. Would not the fact that the members of peculiar groups (in Vegetable Kingdom) are to a great extent localized favor that view ? I am glad to hear that your idea of the unity of the human species is confirmed more and more. The evidence seems to me most strongly to favor it. And you well discriminate the separate ang of unity of birthplace and unity of parentage. As to the physical question, surely mer r* not sup- pose that, in a fresh race, the one or two necessary close intermarriages would sensibly deteriorate the stock. Look at domestic animals of peculiar races, — how long you can breed in and in without much abate- ment of health or vigor ! Did you ever consider the question of the cause of deterioration from interbreeding ? 426 CORRESPONDENCE. [1857, I think I have somewhere in the “ Journal” stated my notion about it, or hinted at it. If not, I will, some day ; for I have a pretty decided opinion about it: that hereditary transmission of individual peculiari- ties involves also, among them, the transmission of dis- ease, or tendency to Hermans constantly inereas- ing heritage of liability as interbreeding goes on; in plants well exemplified by maladies efieoting old cul- tivated varieties long propagated by division. should much enjoy a visit with you at New Haven, and so would my wife, no less. Hope we may some day. ... Yours faithfully, A. Gray. TO A. DE CANDOLLE. March 26, 1857. Fendler is back again in the country of Venezuela, and making fine collections. He will complete the sets of his former distribution, but not send the same things over again. He has found many more Filices. Will you and M. Dunant continue ? On Wright’s return home he was troubled with rheumatism, and longed for a warm climate to pass the winter in. So I sent him to the east end of Cuba (where I wished the Huets to go). He is doing very well there. Oregon is still in a disturbed and unsafe state. But I should inform you that a commission has been raised to run our northwestern boundary with the British government ; and it will probably be commenced this year, The party would have a sufficient escort, and this would give the Huets a safe opportunity for botanizing across the’ continent in a high latitude, if they are so disposed. I know not any details, but x7. 46.] TO GEORGE BENTHAM. 427 I could learn them, if need be, and there would be no difficulty in procuring needful protection for the Huets, they finding their own subsistence. I have published two statistical articles, based on my “ Botany of the Northern States,” in “ Silliman’s Journal,” and a third is now printing in that journal for May. I shall have extra copies to send you. There are other topics I mean to take up, if I can time. TO GEORGE BENTHAM. May 4, 1857. Since your letter came I have looked up and read the article in the “ Edinburgh,” and like it much. Your few words about Genera, page 517, appear to comprise the gist of the whole matter. As to your fuller exposition, not being able to lay hands on the “Literary Gazette,’ I wait to see _your article in the “ Journal of the Linnzan Society.’ I am particularly interested in what you write of your popular “ British Flora,” and the English names ; am going to ask you to explain to me more fully the principles on which you proceed. For, if practicable, I am going to have occasion to do some- thing of the sort here. Pray illustrate your plan a little; as I see much difficulty in carrying it out, except in so small a flora as the British, where every plant has a popular name. One additional difficulty here is that our common English names are mostly misapplied ones, and the plants that have indigenous trivial names have too many of them, varying in dif- ferent parts of the country. How do you name the orders? What relation will you have between your specific names and your 428 CORRESPONDENCE. [1857, generic, and how many words will you allow each to consist of ? Give me your names through some family, say Ranunculacee. If I can see my way clear, I shall follow your lead, or cause it to be followed on an occa- sion which will soon be presented. I wish I had known of Clitoria Mariana-acuminata, ete., in time to add it to my list in the last number of “ Silliman’s Journal ;” a copy of the article was sent — to Dr. Hooker by post last week. I will send more, from my extras, presently. Tam quite prepared for what you say about inter- change of species of United States and Europe taking place via Asia, instead of across the Atlantic ; but you will see there are a few, besides aquatics (Subularia, Eriocaulon, ete.), which would seem to have taken the shorter cut. As respects identical species, interchange is the only thing that, on our views of what a species is, will explain the occurrence of the same species here and there. But as to genera, I do not yet feel free to assume an interchange, or a former continuity of land, between two widely separated regions on account of their having identical genera or closely related species. I see no reason why cognate species may not have been originally given to most widely separated sta- tions ; and, as to the facts of association, can we say more than this, that the species of a genus are apt to be confined to one part of the world? Are there not too many cases to the contrary to warrant our suspecting former continuity of two remote districts on account of common genera? Peculiar genera, such as Torreya, Hlicium, Philadelphus, Astilbe, ete., divided between Japan and the United States of std ie ait etn tei nb bate 5 a es te a a el aca ET. 46.] TO R. W. CHURCH. 429 America, indicate some peculiar relation, and are most noteworthy, but I do not see why it points to connection. I am very glad you are turning your good, logical mind and immense knowledge to this class of topics ; but do not let it run off with too much of your valua- ble time. I take far more satisfaction in discussing questions of botanical affinity ; and long to get back to that sort of work. Just now, I must needs be ab- sorbed in elementary work and teaching, but look to see an end of this. I have been watching the development of the ovules of Magnolia; nothing can be more normal than they are, in the early stages. When Wright comes home from Cuba I expect to get hold of his considerable north Japan collection, which I expect to find very interesting on questions of distribution, the very questions you ask me to con- sider. I doubt if our “ mountain backbone ” actually stops any species, itself, from advancing east or west. I wish you would compare our White Birch with the European B. alba, and let me know the result. Also the Chestnuts. . . TO R. W. CHURCH. CaMBRIDGE, May 15, 1857. An acquaintance en route for Scotland has offered to take some small parcels for me. Among them is one I have taken the liberty to address to you, a copy of a very elementary book! I have prepared as an introduction to my favorite science, finding there was no one in use here which I 1 First Lessons. 430 CORRESPONDENCE. [1857, thought fit to put into the hands of young beginners. Here botany is taught, somehow or other, in most schools, and generally by incompetent teachers from wretched books, i. e., those used in the ordinary schools and for young peo ople. I have endeavored, in the little book I send you, to make real science as easy and simple as possible. I doubt if I have yet aimed low enough; but the book seems to take, and promises to be useful. Although not adapted for your meridian (where you have doubtless good elementary books enough), yet when your boy, who must now be five or six years old, if he has been spared to you, gets a few years older, I shall be much gratified if this little volume should interest him, and aid you somewhat in devel- oping in his mind a love for the study of nature in one of its pleasantest branches. . I want to offer you my new “ Miasual of the Botany of the Northern United States,” not that it can be of any use or of much interest to you, but must not load my kind acquaintance with more parcels. I wait for an opportunity of sending through the booksellers, before long. TO JAMES D. DANA. November 7, 1857. If you have plenty, please send me two more copies of your “ Thoughts on Species.’ I first read it carefully, a week ago, and I meant to write you at once how I like it, and a few remarks, but something prevented at the time, and I have been very busy and preoccupied ever since. For the reason that I like the general doctrine, and wish to see it established, so much the more I am x7. 46.] TO JAMES D. DANA. 431 bound to try all the steps of the reasoning, and all the facts it rests on, impartially, and even to suggest all the adverse criticism I can think of. When I read the pamphlet I jotted down on the margin some notes of what struck me at the time. I will glance at them again, and see if, on reflection, they appear likely to be of the least use to you, and if so will send them, taking it for granted that you rather like to be criti- cised, as I am sure I do, when the object is the surer establishment of truth. In your idea of species as specific amount or kind of concentrated force, you fall back upon the broadest and most fundamental views, and develop it, it seems - to me, with great ability and cogency. Taking the cue of species, if I may so say, from the inorganic, you develop the subject to great advantage for your view, and all you say must have great weight, in “ reasoning from the general.” But in reasoning from inorganic species to organic species, and in making it tell where you want it and for what you want it to tell, you must be sure that you are using the word “ species” in the same sense in the two, that the one is really an equivalent of the other. That is what I am not yet convinced of. And so to me the argument comes only with the force of an analogy, whereas I suppose you want it to come as demonstration. Very likely you could convince me that there is no fallacy in reasoning from the one to the other to the extent you do. But all my experi- ence makes me cautious and slow about building too much upon analogies; and until I see further and clearer, I must continue to think that there is an essential difference between kinds of animals or plants and kinds of matter. How far we may safely reason 432 CORRESPONDENCE. [1857, from the one to the other is the question. If we may do so even as far as you do, might not Agassiz (at least plausibly) say, that as the species Iron was created in a vast number of individuals over the whole earth, so the presumption is that any given species of plants or animals was originated in as many individuals as there are now, and over as wide an area, the hu- man species under as great diversities as it now has (barring historical intermixture) ? —so reducing the question between you to insignificance, because then the question whether men are of one or of several spe- cies would no longer be a question of fact, or of much consequence. ou can answer him from another starting-point, no doubt ; but he may still insist that it is a legitimate carrying out of your own principle. md The tendency of my mind is entaed to this sort of view; but you may be sure that before long there must be one more resurrection of the development theory in a new form, obviating many of the arguments against it, and presenting a more respectable and more formidable appearance than it ever has be- 6 I wanted to say something on the last two pages, but as I have nothing in particular to except to, and much to approve, and as it is late bedtime, I spare you further comments. I set out to find flaws, as likely to be more sug- gestive and therefore far more useful to you than any amount of praise, with which I could fill page after page. Sa i ee ee ee £7. 47.) TO W. J. HOOKER. 433 TO W. J. HOOKER. CaMBRIDGE, December 6, 1857. Your first letter is now gone to Sullivant, because you speak of him so handsomely, and say that Mitten is instructed to prepare a set of Mosses for him. A noble fellow is Sullivant and deserves all you say of him and his works. The more you get to know of him the better you will like him. Let me tell you about my “ Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States.” It was quite impossi- ble, of course, that the publishers should provide such illustrations as the fourteen plates and keep the book at a salable price, so Sullivant, on his own motion, had the eight plates of Musci engraved in copper, at his own cost, for $630 (about £126), and gave them to the work, after printing 250 copies for his separate booklet I sent you. I gave the six plates of Ferns, etc., cut on stone by Sprague to complete the plan. In the “Journal” you are wrong in supposing that the Musci were even drawn by Sprague. If in time please correct this when you notice his book. Sulli- vant drew them all with his own hands (as he did those of former memoirs which pleased you well), and had them copied and reduced to proper size by a Ger- man artist he employs. So that besides his labor, he has expended at least £180 in money, on these plates. They were executed on copper by a young engraver in Boston. Your second letter, begun the day the other was dispatched, reached me a few days ago, while dear Torrey was here on a visit. He has just returned to New York. We ealled to see Greene, but he was not a a's 434 CORRESPONDENCE. [1857, TO GEORGE BENTHAM. November 16, 1857. I have noted with interest Naudin’s doings in Cu- curbitace. It has induced me to look a little into the geographical question, and I begin really to think C. Pepo, and perhaps others, are American. Mr. Sopho- cles, our Greek tutor, who knows cultivated plants well, and everything about medieval and ancient Greek, is quite clear that the ancients knew nothing of pumpkins and winter squashes, and is able to cor- rect De Candolle’s lucubrations in one or two points. Our New England and Canadian aborigines had beans, too. These and Cucurbita came north from a warmer climate with maize, I presume. . When I got your proof-sheet of nn . «British Flora” and your long letter of 28th May, there was something I wanted to talk about, I dare say, but there was no writing then, as you had gone abroad, and now the subject is all out of my head. But I have oe- casion to take up the subject of popular names of plants quite seriously in a week or two, and I may have something to remark. I wish to follow your lead, but should be disposed to go rather farther than you do in adopting English names. For instance, I would certainly adopt Mouse- tail instead of Myosure. Myosure is hardly more English than before clipping its tail a little, and Mousetail is the exact equivalent. Corydal and As- tragal I quite like, as they have really no English names. I incline to Crowfoot as a generic appellation. To extend it over the whole genus is only doing what is so often done with scientific generic names. In the case of genera having very strongly marked subgenera, would it not be possible to let the subge- neric name govern the popular nomenclature ? as say — &T. 47.] TO GEORGE BENTHAM. 435 Pear; genus=Pyrus, under it Pear, with its species ; Apple, 1. Common Apple, 2. Crab-Apple, ete. There are formidable difficulties about this popular nomenclature, yet they must be surmounted in some way or other. As we are making much of English, why not say “ rootstock” instead of. “rhizome.” I do not like French forms. I would even say “ pod” instead of “capsule,” in popular parlance. Kindly send me proofs as you go on. I want much to see them. Wright’s collections in North Pacific Expedition are here, and he is turning over his Behring Straits collection and trying to work it out, with some help from me. There is a Hongkong collection; there may be some of these he would like to ask you to name, so far as you may off hand. The Japan collection I will elaborate myself. There is not so much from the north as I expected. They had no chance to explore the small islands connecting with the Kurile Islands. I have only peeped into one or two parcels; but in one I saw two things which will interest you as much as they did me. Imagine the two most characteristic possible eastern United States plants, Caulophyllum and Diphylleia, both, I believe, our very species. Tell this to Dr. Hooker! The only domestic news I have to tell you is, that on a hot August day our beloved Newfoundland dog was found dead, — really a sad loss. To console us my brother-in-law, a fortnight after, sent me a puppy of the same breed, an uneasy, frolicsome, awkward fellow yet, but promising to be intelligent and very 436 CORRESPONDENCE. [1857, handsome. We could not bear to give him the name of his lamented predecessor; so Mrs. Gray named him Hans, —a souvenir of Pontrilas. . . . Dr. Gray’s dogs and cats were always well-recog- nized members of the family. He had a great love of animals, which was warmly returned by his different pets. In his early married life the kittens he helped raise by feeding them with a dropping-tube from his microscope rather preferred him to their young and careless mother, and, confounding all other men with him, were perpetually scrambling into laps, to the surprise of callers. Two grew into fine cats, who de- manded a regular attention and consideration from him, reminding him by gentle taps, one on each side, when bedtime came. Of his first dog, he always said that they stood more in the relation of brothers than master and dog ; and the dog felt a guardian care of him. The differ- ent characters of his two Newfoundland dogs, and of the smaller ones he had later, interested him, for they were singularly different, though both the New- foundlands shared his affection for a pretty Maltese eat who had succeeded the other cats; they were espe- cially fond of her kittens and attentive to them, allow- ing them all sorts of liberties. The cats and dogs always lived affectionately together. Dr. Gray always recognized their good consciences, which varied some- what with the different type of animal, and considered that the size of different breeds had much to do with their characteristics. They always learned to eat what their master did; not so much, he would say, from any preference for oysters and dry toast, as that they were ambitious to do as far as possible what he did. a ee ane at ae a eee ree een en a en NN . XT. 47.] TO GEORGE BENTHAM. 437 He was very skillful in the handling of animals, and they recognized it in allowing him to perform small surgical operations, to dress wounds, ete., with a touch- ing trust and submission. TO GEORGE BENTHAM. March 9, 1858. My vrEAR Bentuam, — Many thanks for yours of February 14. Although much pleased to hear from you, I cannot expect to hear often, unless you have something special to say. No one but Hooker can write long and frequent letters while he is doing such a vast amount of work, and keeping up such a fresh, and keen, and scrutinizing interest in such a great variety of subjects. I wonder how he does it. How well oiled the machinery of his brain must be to do it all without great wear and tear! If you or I had half these matters to think of at once, we should go distracted. Warn Hooker to take good care of him- self and not break down in health. It is a facility which he inherits, that of turning from one thing to another without loss of time or of working power. T shall be pleased to see the “‘ Handbook”? when it is out. Never mind what people say. I dare say the little book will do a great deal of good... . IT am glad you will distribute more of Spruce’s plants. I want especially any of his Andes collections, for Bafios was one of our Exploring Expedition sta- tions. I am going to finish up our Exploring Expedi- tion this year (D. V.), and have done with it. That and some other things done, and I dream of coming over to England, and working at nothing but “ North American Flora,” de novo. I hope I may, and that I shall find you and Mrs. B. as fresh as ever, and en- joying yourselves to the full... . 438 CORRESPONDENCE. [1858, April 26. My last book! in elementary botany is now just off my hands, and will be out in a fortnight. I hope it will be of use. Forgive me for writing horn-books, and I am now done with that sort of work. There were several convincing reasons for doing it. TO DANIEL CADY EATON.? February 23, 1858. I dare say you may learn something here as to teaching, ete., if you can pick it up yourself, which, after all, is the only way anything worth knowing is obtained. But from now to the end of April I am just overwhelmed with work, and shall have no time to give any special instruction. At the opening of the term I begin my drilling of Sophomores in the “ Botanical Text-Book.” My lec- tures to a selection of Juniors, on Systematic Botany, I do not ordinarily commence till April 1, but this year Iam able to begin early in March, though not much work is done till May. You might attend Agassiz’ s lectures, but he will not be back ~~ Flor- ida as soon as the opening of the term. Let me know how much instruction you have to give this year, and of what sort, and I can see whether I can help you much. I dare say you will teach very well. There are certain little matters you might pick up about class illustration and manipulation without it costing you much time. We were just thinking of sending you Wright’s Hongkong ferns. 1 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.’’ 2 Daniel Cady Eaton, professor of botany at Yale. altel Fe TE ee ee ne Nene ae tan Wales Mn aie pes tecenn Pere Oe on tisTt 0) Weems sre (= 1 GEES Se = SMa ne ta Smet sey efi mma seen rag te ye * ET. 47.) TO DANIEL CADY EATON. 439 Suppose you come on, count as a pupil, or as a vis- itor, as you like, work away as you think best, making preparations for your course, in which I will help you alll can. And at the same time work up Wright’s Hongkong and Bonin and Japan ferns (bring any books you want which I have not). I want to drill you a little at systematic work, and think you will learn something that way. Come straight here. We shall want you to stay with us, if the house is empty. And if not we shall make no difficulty of sending you down to the Brattle House. But it would be so much more convenient here. I am very desirous that you should be duly estab- lished at Yale, and have no doubt you will satisfy the college and fill the place with comfort and credit. We will talk over matters at odd moments when you come. T shall be most glad to help you as a friend and fellow-worker ; but I cannot promise any special in- struction, and shall take no fee. ‘“ Dog does not eat dog,” is the saying, you know. Judge Lowell writes, in 1888, “I was in college when Dr. Gray was appointed to his professorship at Harvard, and ours was, I think, the first or one of the first classes to whom he lectured. I remember his lec- tures well, they were so full of knowledge and of en- thusiasm and so calculated to impress the young mind. “‘T suppose he had not lectured much of late years ; and in his many other successes, his powers as a lec- turer may have been overlooked by those who have written of him.” Dr. Rothrock, in his address before the memorial meeting of the botanical section of the Academy at 440 CORRESPONDENCE. [1858, Philadelphia, speaks of Dr. Gray’s patient drilling of him in writing his thesis, making him go over and over it again, until it had been rewritten six times before he allowed him to be satisfied with it. His pupils would always remember his comment when satisfied, — “* That is neatly stated.” And Dr. Farlow shows the picturesque figure “ hur- rying down Garden Street (on lecture mornings) so covered by the mass of branches and flowers which were to illustrate the lecture that his head and body were hardly visible.” ! “The few who gathered around the little table in Harvard Hall, in pursuit of knowledge which did not count in the college reckoning, will never forget the untiring patience with which he explained what then seemed difficult, the contagious enthusiasm with which he led them on from simple facts toward the higher fields of science, or the tender personal interest which he showed in their hopes and half-formed plans for the future; an interest which, on his part, only strengthened as years passed on, and makes them now mourn, not so much the death of a great botanist as the loss of a sympathizing friend.” 2 TO W. J. HOOKER. April 30, 1858. I must tell you that in humble imitation of Kew, I am going to establish a museum of vegetable pro- ducts, ete., in our university. The erection of a new building for the Museum of Comparative Anatomy and for the Mineralogical Cab- inet liberates the very fine hall used for the Miner- 1 Botanical Gazette, March, 188 2 Memoir of Dr. Gray, raat yer ees 1888. a ie hee > 9s ee ee a ie ae he Sp Ge ia a gs peeve ST Fee jal hake elean tAse ea mT. 47.) TO W. J. HOOKER, 441 alogical Cabinet formerly. This I have applied for, sai obtained for my purposes, and am taking into i the various things I have picked up from time to time. It is a room shout forty-five feet long, with deep al- coves the whole length of each side, already shelved, and with glass doors to the cases, a window in each of the ten alcoves ; the centre, or nave, serves for my lecture-room. So now I shall beg all my students and correspondents to send me every sort of vegeta- ble thing; so if there is anything you need still from this country you should let me know; and whenever you are overrun with duplicate woods, etc., just think how welcome such things would be here, and how they may stimulate our collectors and travelers, who per- chance may occasionally send me something that would fill some gap in the Kew museum. Mr. Wright is having a good training here, and when he goes again to Cuba, or elsewhere, will do much better, both as to common botanical specimens and for collecting vegetable products and curiosities. Dr. A. A. Gould, who will bring a line to you, is a physician in Boston, and one of our best zodlogists, especially in conchology, etc.; a most excellent man. He takes a well-deserved holiday for three months or so, mostly in a run over the Continent. He has ndon friends in plenty. He may like to see Kew Gardens before one o’clock, and would be pleased to pay his respects to you in person, if his time allows a flying visit to Kew before he proceeds to the Con- tinent. Just at this moment, and since my parcel of books for you left the house, the May number of “ Silliman’s Journal” has come in. I will ask Dr. Gould to take it to you... . 442 CORRESPONDENCE. [1858, June 21. About the museum. Ours is to be not economical (except in the sense that it must not cost anything to speak of) but for class illustration and botanical re- search. So I want woods, fruits, seeds, ete., and must keep all within narrow limits. All I could venture to ask from you is that whenever your keeper or Dr. Hooker should be throwing out duplicates to save room, you would have some such things boxed up for me. I should indeed like to go over to you, and select for myself, as you and Dr. Hooker suggest. Joseph suggests that I should be sent over by the university for the purpose! His whole idea is as magnificent as my plan is humble. I fear I must always travel and cross the ocean at my own charges. But the propo- sition suggests to me that, when I am ready to revisit England, this will be a good ground for asking leave of absence without cutting off my pay. But there is much to be done before I can leave home again, and when I shall be ready and able to do so, if it please Providence that I may be, I want two full years and most of it at Kew. How I hope it may be done in your day, and that I may receive your cordial greeting, and find you as hale and as actively useful as ever. But “Vhomme propose,” etc. We are delighted to hear from Mrs. E. that you are well and strong again. Boott kindly writes me of Brown by every mail; by the next arrival we must expect to hear that he is no more. . . Wherever Wright goes, you may rely upon the full- est set of his catherines, and we may expect they will be better than formerly. For (what I never thought he would have patience for) he has really | | ‘ ; 4 KT. 47.) TO W. J. HOOKER. 443 taken to studying botany, which he never did before, and digs away at his dried specimens most persever- ingly. At first it went against the grain, and he used to wish himself far off in the woods. But he has kept on for six or eight months, and now generally prefers to find out a plant by his own skill, rather than have me tell him what it is; so he will be able to collect more understandingly, and the year passed here will not be lost time. Dr. Robert Brown died shortly after the date of this letter. In Dr. Gray’s memoir of him, he says : — “ Upon the death of Robert Brown, it was remarked that, next to Humboldt, his name adorned the list of a greater number of scientific societies than that of any other naturalist or philosopher. It was Humboldt himself who, many years ago, saluted Brown with the appellation, ‘ Botanicorum facile princeps,’ and the universal consent of botanists recognized and con- firmed the title. . . . Brown delighted to rise from a special case to gah and wide generalizations ; and was apt to draw most important and always irresistible conclusions from small selected data or particular points of structure. He had unequaled skill in find- ing decisive instances. . . . So all his discoveries and all his notes and observations are fertile far beyond the reader’s expectation. Perhaps no naturalist ever taught so much in writing so little. . . . Those who knew him as a man will bear unanimous testimony to the unvarying simplicity, truthfulness, and benevo- lence of his character, as well as to the singular-up- rightness of his judgment.” ! 1 Scientific Papers of Asa Gray, vol. ii. 444 CORRESPONDENCE. [1858, TO R. W. CHURCH. June 1, 1858. Your gift of the “Oxford Essays” came to me, and was partly read with much interest before the arrival of your kind letter of the 31st March. Many thanks for both. I know too little of French literature, early or late, but I admire your article for its neat and delicate de- lineation and discrimination of character. I read with interest, not unmingled with concern, Baden Powell’s and Wilson’s articles. The latter person I heard preach one of the Bampton lectures at Oxford, 1851. Into what will the latitudinarian school, if I may so eall it, develop at Oxford ? Gladstone’s article I have not had time to read yet, nor his large work, which probably will reach us pres- ently, through our book club, — I hope at a time when I have more leisure than now. Last week the publishers, at my request, sent to Triibner & Company, American booksellers (12 or 20) Paternoster Row, a copy of a new and more elementary book! of mine than the one you are pleased to com- pliment. I intended that as a kind of horn-book, which Dr. Hooker insists it is not; and as something more simple was wanted here, to lead the way both to the “ Lessons” and especially to the “ Manual,” which is rather strong for beginners, I have tried again, and you will see the result. Ishould have made the little “ Popular Flora” fuller if the publishers had allowed more room. Having last year reédited my ‘“ Botanical Text- book ” (of which, to complete your set, a copy is also sent to you, through Triibner), I have now done my 1 How Plants Grow. aT. 47.] TO JOHN TORREY. 445 part in elementary botanical writing, and I return with zest to my drier investigations, in which I have much to do. If I ever find time I am greatly disposed to write some day upon the principles of classification, — the ground in nature for classification, the nature and distribution and probable origin of species, — knotty points, upon which I incline to differ decidedly from Agassiz, and considerably from the common notions. Some of the more immediate and best-established deductions I hope to bring out in a paper I shall soon be occupied with, containing the results of a compari- son of the flora of Japan (in which I have new materi- als) with our own of the United States of America. My college work keeps me very busy at this sea- son. . . . I see no near prospect of revisiting the Old World. The commercial troubles last autumn have reduced our moderate means and prospects a little. But if I live I must yet have two years’ work in Eng- land and on the Continent. With great regard, I re- main, Yours very faithfully, ASA Gray. TO JOHN TORREY. July 27, 1858. I have to-day received a nice present from Vilmorin of Paris, i. e., the copy of Robert Brown’s “ Prodro- mus,” presented by him to A. L. de Jussieu. I am kept here, too, by the attending suddenly to building a new conservatory, for which a donation of $2,000 has been received. I cannot leave till it is well under way. I am deep in Japan botany ; interesting results. 446 CORRESPONDENCE. [1858, September 24. At length we are home again, arriving night before last, very direct from Quebec, where we had (as every- where else upon our whole route — Litchfield, New York, Palisades, Fairfield, Sauquoit, Montreal, ete.) a delightful time. J. much stronger, except for a cold caught in Quebec, which still lingers. Colonel Munro! was very kind; is a jolly good fel- low, as the English say. TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. October 14, 1858. By this time you are in your house, I hope, and all comfortable, and ready soon to set to work. I rejoice to hear that Mr. Shaw keeps up his zeal, and will make a creditable establishment. I wish him all prosperity. If he will make and keep up a general herbarium it will save you much time and money. ... October 30. I have yours of the 24th. Tatnall? is an old friend of Dr. Darlington, new to me, but writing to me of late. I know not his age, profession, character, ete., etc. But he appears to know the plants around him very well... . Hope you are getting settled down and comfort- able. I met Agassiz at the Club. He is cordial and pleasant. He had not heard of your return, which I wondered at... . 1 William Munro, 1816-1880 ; general in ea army. “ The most ee agrostologist of our day’’ [A. 2 Edward Tatnall, b. 1822, bisrecy weg pee of a catalogue of plants of Newcastle County, Delawa a eee ET. 48.] TO GEORGE BENTHAM. 447 Fendler is with you, at least in St. Louis. Short is ready to advance something if he will fall to collect- ing again wherever you say. Get him some appoint- ment with the army at Utah. That is the place. What is the good of your both beg Democrats if you cannot get something for it! ! December 3. Darwin asks me to find out if you medical men have ascertained or noticed any difference in liability to take fevers of warm climates, say yellow fever, be- tween light-complexioned and dark-complexioned peo- ple of the Caucasian race. If you know personally anything about it, or where anything is published bearing on the point, kindly let me know, and oblige Your old friend, Asa Gray. TO GEORGE BENTHAM. December 13, 1858, Boott writes in glowing terms of your paper on British flora and distribution lately read; and I hope soon to read it in the “ Linnean Journal.” That the interchange of temperate species between North America and Europe has taken place via Asia is now a patent fact; and now the whole subject, and the probable explanation, begins to be clear to see. December 31. A happy New Year to you and Mrs. Bentham, and many thanks for your letter promising me your paper on Hongkong plants to print here. Pray give me passim any notes that occur to you upon Loo Choo plants, ete. I shall now soon be done with my Japan studies, and shall print a paper bringing to 448 CORRESPONDENCE. [1858, view curious facts of distribution, etc., and lay out a set for the Kew herbarium. How true it is, as you intimated, that the interchange in northern hemi- sphere has mainly been via Asia. T heartily admire your “ Handbook,” and await with great interest your paper growing out of it; your experience is so great and your judgment so sound. As to English nomenclature, we can only approxi- mate to a good system; the practical difficulties are too great, often insurmountable. It seems to me you hit the happy medium, if we must needs have popular name of the genus coéxtensive with the Latin one; but I rather doubt the advisability of that, and would use sub-generic popular names for generic, I think. Though “I do not much like” the whole thing, yet somebody must attend to English nomenclature, for better or worse; so I am glad you took it up. I hope you will study perigynous and epigynous. As to ovary, which, putting the important part for the whole, we have learned to use in place of pistil, it certainly is perfectly novel to me to hear the name applied to the gynecium of Ranunculus. I am confi- dent the word is never so used in De Candolle or Endlicher. I do not recall any instance of your using the word in any such sense; I am sure I never did. Where the fact of the combination is doubtful or am- biguous, if I said ovary, that would infer the combi- nation ; if ovaries, the distinctness. In Apocynaceze A. De Candolle steadily writes ovarium or ovaria, according to the nature of the case. Per contra, you might as well eall the column of Malva a stamen! For the collective term, I wish, in your paper, you would go for restoring to use the Linnean term pistillum, asa against the habit of using ovarium in a double sense, hail ta i ac Rp yt een eae ce ae i ga ET. 48.] TO W. J. HOOKER. 449 that is, sometimes for whole female organ, sometimes for its ovule-bearing portion. Pray do not add a third ; and so when you speak of ovary in Clematis leave us to gather, from the context, whether you mean, (1) the whole gynecium; (2) a separate pis- til; or, (8) the ovuliferous portion of a pistil. Hooker calls my judgment about root and radicle “a flippant snub”! I beg a thousand pardons, and had no intention to be flippant or dogmatical, but simply to record a fact. For mistake, pray vead take. My thanks for his letter of December 8th; will write him soon. February 2, 1859. I wish I had now your paper on geographical dis- tribution, while I am working up the relations of the Japan flora in this respect. Where is Agardh’s paper published, and what does it amount to? ... I cannot answer Dr. Hooker’s exceedingly interest- ing letter about theoretical ancient distribution of plants this week. Tell him I shall have some evi- dence which will come well into his views as to north temperate zone. TO W. J. HOOKER. January 24, 1859. I hope soon to hear that Government will acquire your herbarium, and make bountiful provision for its increase and maintenance. After all Brown’s genius, you have done more for botany than a dozen Browns, and made a hundredfold more sacrifices and efforts. To you, and to your son, England and the botanical world owe the greatest debt of gratitude,—a debt which I hope will continue to accumulate a long time FR 450 CORRESPONDENCE. [1859, TO JOHN TORREY. January 7, 1859. My pear Frienp, —I will send your bundles pre- sently, after Tuesday next, till when I must work like a dog, to get through the Japan collection, and read a paper on Tuesday at a social meeting of the Academy at Mr. Loring’s house that evening (January 11th). Now come on (if by day train), stop there, 8 Ashbur- ton Place, where I will be Iam going to hold forth for nearly an hour, upon Japan botany in its relation to ours and the rest of the northern temperate zone, and knock out the underpinning of Agassiz’s theories about species and their origin ; show, from the very facts that stumbled De Candolle, the high probability of single and local creation of species, turning some of Agassiz’s own guns against I introduced se here at Club, last month, and Agas- siz took it very well, indeed. LT asked Thurber the name of a couple of Grasses. Let the Grass-man speak ; now that he is turned out to grass, let him attend to his grazing. February 19. Andersson writes me that I am chosen one of the six botanists on the foreign list of Stockholm Academy, to fill the vacancy caused by Robert Brown’s death. Friday evening, [April]. I have your two favors of 12th and 15th. I am very grateful for the nice care you take of my wife. You seem to have her under very thorough control. Cure her up fast as you can, and please return her per railway on the 3d of May; for the 4th being the ee a a eee ee ee ET. 48.] TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 451 eleventh anniversary of our union, we must not be separated then —‘“ The Union, it must be pre- served.” ... I send back your Cavendish with many thanks. The old cock was much like Robert Brown in many respects. Though there is nothing in him to love, he calls out a sort of admiration, partly in the literal sense, that is, wonder, mixed with pity, that he had no feelings. Brown had, and besides he was social and not so very queer, but he lived very much in the same way, and I suppose had as little sense of re- ligion. Schreber spells Anthephora, but gives no deriva- tion. P. de B., you see, does, so Anthephora is doubt- less right. _ Can that and Buffalo-grass be the same? I doubt. Has the Anthephora-like plant no stamens of its own? The mode of growth does not so much distinguish your plant from Newberry’s Hemitones, and verily I suspect they are the same species. Pity you come in and spoil a good name!.. . TO A. DE CANDOLLE. April 27, 1859. T am charmed at the intelligence you give of your son, and that he takes to botany with spirit, so that he may continue the celebrity of the honored name of De Candolle in the third generation. We shall weleome him when he comes to America and will do all we can to advance his objects. Ore- gon and the country to the north of it (British Co- lumbia) will be in good and safe condition to explore, and I am convinced that there is still much to find in the Sandwich Islands, especially in the interior of 452 CORRESPONDENCE. [1859, Hawaii, where there is said to be a broad, almost un- trodden, wooded region, between the principal moun- tain-masses, and occupying a good part of the interior of the island. But it will take time, patience, and considerable means to explore this region; provisions must be carried in for a long way, and many natives employed in feeding the exploring party. Next, the Kurile Islands, and all the northern part of Japan, Yesso, and the islands northeast of it offer the greatest interest; Manchuria also, but the Russians will look after that; Korea could perhaps be explored, so that the expedition you have suggested strikes my fancy as the best that could be, onal would take your son through regions full of interest, safe to explore, and healthy. Certainly I can suggest nothing better. Pray give my best regards to M. Boissier and to other friends in Geneva. I trust you will have safety and tranquillity in Switzerland. But it appears as if you would have war all around you,— a very sad state of things. Our latest intelligence looks very warlike, I am sorry to see. With all my heart I join in the supplication, “Give peace in our time, O Lord.” From such a war as is threatened no good can spring, in any result. Ever and — condinlly yours, Asa Gray. TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. May 18, 1859. Well, even $10,000 a year is much better than nothing for the botanical establishment. I wish we had half of that. . . . If Shaw will be liberal in his establishment, why not turn over to him your general herbarium? If I had one I could have free access to always, I would | ET. 48.] TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. 453 not take the expense and trouble of keeping up and increasing one myself. . . . So, you have made the capital discovery, and proved the so-called Anthephora to be the female of Buffalo- grass. I would not have believed it without direct evidence. I cannot study it; it would take me a long while to get the case so before me that my opinion about the affinities of the grass would be of any use; but it is most interesting, and I beg you to work it out in detail and thoroughly. . . . June 6. As to your own herbarium, I think you are right for the present. Keep your own; arrange it on paper of the size of Shaw’s. But look to an eventual combi- nation, either in Shaw’s lifetime or soon after, and be open to propositions from Shaw; as, for example, to take your whole herbarium, provide for maintenance and increase, and when ready, to make you director of the whole concern. This duty must devolve upon you, and when it does, with a decent salary, you could re- side up there, throw physic to the dogs, or only take a share in consultations, and have time to do yourself justice in botany. Meanwhile, if Shaw would take your herbarium upon proper terms, you might at any time have any particular families of plants with you, in your house, to work at... . Mr. Shaw has lately written. I inclose his letter to you. I have just replied to it, expressing a lively in- terest in his projected establishment, and offering my best services if he requires them in the way of advice or suggestion. I hope it will be all right in the eng, .. . CHAPTER VI. LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. 1860-1868. As before stated, Dr. Gray’s letters to Dr. Darwin previous to 1862 have been destroyed, save the one dated January 28, 1860, which was published in Dar- win’s “ Life and Letters,” and is here reproduced for the convenience of the reader, as well as Dr. Gray’s letter of January 5, 1860, to Dr. Joseph D. Hooker, also published in Darwin’s “ Life and Letters.” The original letters to Darwin later than 1862 have been more or less injured, apparently by the ravages of mice, so that in copying them it has sometimes been necessary to supply missing words. Where these are not obvious, the supposed words are enclosed in brackets. The letters in this chapter also include the period of the civil war; into which, as they show, Dr. Gray threw himself with all his earnestness. He helped as far as he was able in every way. A company of the men who were too old or otherwise incapacitated from going to the front was enlisted in Cambridge to guard the State Arsenal there, and also to be ready to be summoned in any emergency; and he joined the ranks and was faithful in the drilling and every duty to which they were called. It is hard to realize, in these days, how all the community worked together in all possible ways ; it was the business of life. ee re ete Sta, eee ee ee ae a ee ia i a xT. 49.) TO J. D. HOOKER. 455 TO J. D. HOOKER. CAMBRIDGE, January 5, 1860. My pear Hooker, — Your last letter, which reached me just before Christmas, has got mislaid during the upturnings in my study which take place at that season, and has not yet been discovered. I should be very sorry to lose it, for there were in it some botanical mems. which I had not secured. The principal part of your letter was high baila: tion of Darwin’s book. Well, the book has reached me, and I finished its careful perusal four days ago; and I freely say that your laudation is not out of place. It is done in a masterly manner. It might well have taken twenty years to produce it. It is crammed full of most interesting matter, thoroughly digested, well expressed, close, cogent ; and taken as a system it makes out a better case than I had supposed possi- ble. I wil write to Darwin when I get a chance. As I have promised, he and you shall have fair play here. . . . I must myself write a review of Darwin’s book for “ Silliman’s Journal” (the more so that I suspect Agassiz means to come out upon it) for the next (March) number, and I am now setting about it when I ought to be every moment working the Exploring Expedition Composite, which I know far more about. And really it is no easy job, as you may well imagine. I doubt if I shall please you altogether. I know I shall not please Agassiz at all. I hear another reprint is in the press, and the book will excite much attention here, and some controversy. . . . 456 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1860, TO CHARLES DARWIN. CAMBRIDGE, January 23, 1860. My pear Darwin, — You have my hurried letter telling you of the arrival of the remainder of the sheets of the reprint, and of the stir I had made for a reprint in Boston. Well, all looked pretty well, when lo, we found that a second New York publishing house had announced a reprint also! I wrote then to both New York publishers, asking them to give way to the author and his reprint of a revised edition. I got an answer from Harpers that they withdraw ; from the Appletons, that they had got the book out (and the next day I saw a copy); but that, “if the work should have any considerable sale, we certainly shall be disposed to pay the author reasonably and liberally.” The Appletons being thus out with their reprint, the Boston house declined to go on. So I wrote to the Appletons, taking them at their word, offering to aid their reprint, to give them the use of the altera- tions in the London reprint, as soon as I find out what they are, ete., ete. And I sent them the first leaf, and asked them to insert in their future issue the additional matter from Butler,’ which tells just right. So there the matter stands. If you furnish any mat- ter in advance of the London third edition, I will make them pay for it. I may get something for you. All got is clear gain ; but it will not be very much, I suppose. Such little notices in the papers as have yet ap- peared are quite handsome and considerable. 1 A quotation from Butler’s Analogy, on the use of the word “ nat- ural,” which in the second edition is placed with the passages from Whewell and Bacon, on p. ii., opposite the title-page. ET. 49.] TO CHARLES DARWIN. 457 I hope next week to get printed sheets of my review from New Haven, and send them to you, and will ask you to pass them on to Dr. Hooker. To fulfill your request, I ought to tell you what I think the weakest, and what the best, part of your book. But this is not easy, nor to be done in a word or two. The best part, I think, is the whole, that is, its plan and treatment, the vast amount of facts and acute inferences handled as if you had a perfect mas- tery of them. I do not think twenty years too much time to produce such a book in. Style clear and good, but now and then wants revi- sion for little matters (p. 97, self-fertilizes itself, etc.). Then your candor is worth everything to your cause. It is refreshing to find a person with a new theory who frankly confesses that he finds difficulties, insur- mountable at least for the present. I know some people who never have any difficulties to speak of. The moment I understood your premises, I felt sure you had a real foundation to hold on. Well, if one admits your premises, I do not see how he is to stop short of your conclusions, as a probable hypothesis at least. It naturally happens that my review of your book does not exhibit anything like the full force of the impression the book has made upon me. Under the circumstances I suppose I do your theory more good here, by bespeaking for it a fair and favorable con- sideration, and by standing noncommitted as to its full conclusion, than I should if I announced myself a convert ; nor could I say the latter, with truth. Well, what seems to me the weakest point in the book is the attempt to account for the formation of organs, the making of eyes, ete., by natural selection. Some of this sete: quite , PEE 458 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. (1860, The chapter on Hybridism is not a weak, but a strong chapter. You have done wonders there. But still you have not accounted, as you may be held to account, for divergence up to a certain extent pro- ducing increased fertility of the crosses, but carried one short, almost imperceptible, step more, giving rise to sterility, or reversing the tendency. Very likely you are on the right track; but you have something to do yet in that department. Enough for the present. I am not insensible to your compliments, the very high compliment which you pay me in valuing my opinion. You evidently think more of it than I do, though from the way I write to you, and especially to Hooker, this might not be inferred from the reading of my letters. I am free to say that I never learnt so much from one book as I have from yours. There remain a thou- sand things I long to say about it. Ever yours, Asa GRAY. TO CHARLES L. BRACE. 1861 (?) Dear Brace,—I should criticise various things in your last “Times” article, if you were here to talk it over with me. If you expected Huxley to do what you criticise him for not doing, you would naturally be disappointed. His merit, and his way as a lecturer, is to select some good topic or point of view and make a clear exposi- tion of it, the clearness of which very much depends upon his not scattering himself over too much ground. He naturally kept himself to matters he could handle well, and let alone those upon which, as we very well know, he had nothing in particular to say. x7. 50.] TO CHARLES L. BRACE. 459 1. “ Merest fancies,” “ baseless fabric of a dream,” etc. Why, what made Owen an evolutionist as early as Darwin? And what has made so many naturalists, Mivart, and lately Dana, for instance, deve, who yet think nothing of Natural Selectio But to illustrate. You allow that the ees. ary pedigree of the horse is made out. But what had “ Natural Selection ” to do with the making this out ? Tt would have been all the very same, both the evi- dence and the ground of the inference, if Natural Selection had never been propounded. There is no evidence how the forms were selected, there is simply the fact of the series of forms, which, with other like evidence, brings conviction to most naturalists that one has somehow come from the other. And this con- viction is about as strong to those who do not believe a — Selection” will explain it, as those who me Professor Guyot, you mean. Dana avowedly adopts from Guyot. . To those who talk or think of necessary evolu- tion, or, like Spencer, deduce it ex necessitate rei, this matter of immense time is very pertinent. I don’t think Darwin is bothered by it much. On my way of thinking, it is no bother at all, considering what a deal of time there has been anyway. 4. Do you mean “hybrid forms”? I fail to see what hybrids, that is, mules from the crossing of re- lated species, has to do with it, one way or the other. Nobody (of clear conceptions) supposes new species come from the mixture of other species. That is a way to confuse or blend species, not to originate them. 460 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. (1862, But there is no “ want of hybrids ;” there are plenty of them, and they have mixed some few species (dogs, for instance) ; but they play no important part in the matters you are considering. “ Want of connecting forms in living species,” that is to the purpose. Well, as a systematic botanist, I wish there was a want. The connecting forms are my great trouble every day. You would save me an awful deal of trouble, time, and constant uncertainty, if you would cause them to be wanting! 5. So you will not accept the motto “ex uno disce omnes.” If you admit the horse’s evolution as proved, does not that carry an implication of evolution in other lines, of which similar, but fewer steps are known? Or are all evolutions those of cavalry ? CAMBRIDGE, June 17, 1862. Dear Brace, — Thanks for the “* World.” Who wield its destinies ? It is, I suppose, your article on Darwin, a very good one, for its purpose and space. Before you too confidently reject the evidence for the existence of man in the diluvial period, just turn over a very impartial and good article by Pic- tet, —a good judge of such matters, —in the March number of the ‘ Bibliothéque Universelle de Ge- néve,” “ De la Question sur Homme Fossile.” I presume it is in the Astor Library. If it is not, you may tell Mr. Cogswell there might as well not be any Astor Library. Ever thine, A. GRAY. iter ee ig ee ea te ees zr, 51.] TO CHARLES L. BRACE. 461 CAMBRIDGE, April 22, 1862 (?) Dear Brace,— You are very weleome to such casual criticism as I can offer on your two pages of manuscript. The general fact of a segregated people (or indi- viduals of an animal species) becoming best adapted to the particular climate, etc., through Natural Selec- tion is clear enough, the best adapted alone surviving in the long run, and the peculiarities transmitted by the close breeding. But what your statements tend to make out is, not the tendency of a human race to return to its original type, but only the tendency of the causes which pro- duced a certain effect once, to produce it again, the circumstances continuing, — to produce it in the Fel- lahs as it produced it in the remote ancestors of the Pharaohs. That is all safe enough. But your case does not prove that unless you make out that the Egyptian race was nearly destroyed by crossings. I do not know, but I doubt if you can show that, that the crossings were ever enough to modify the Egyptian people, at least the common people, who make up the bulk. Slight infusions, you see, would be worked out. The foreign though conquering race would be less prolific and less enduring than the native, etc., ete. So is it not likely that in the Fel- lahs you have the representatives of the old Egyptians continued, not reproduced, as your remarks would partly lead ome to suppose your meaning ? Besides, once having got a race you must not make too much of climate, to the overlooking of the wonder- ful persistence of any variety when close bred. See the Jews: the nose remains hooked, etc., under all climates. 462 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1863, Again, in your last sentence. When you wnscien- tific people take up a scientific principle you are apt to make too much of it, to push it to conclusions beyond what is warranted by the facts. But, because a par- ticular race has persisted in Egypt, how do you know that it is the only race capable of perpetuating itself ? If there had been a large infusion of different peo- ple in Egypt, and if they had exterminated the old race, do you not suppose this would have established itself, perpetuated itself, and that its particular adap- tations to the climate would have been different from that of the present race? If you cut off all future immigration into North America, would the Indians resume possession of the country ? or else our descendants become a copper- colored race ? ; _Enough for the present. When you have cracked these nuts, send me, if you please, another sheet. Ever yours cordially, Asa Gray. _CampBrincE, July 6, 1863. Dear Brace, — Yours of 20th ult. came just as J. was off for New Haven and I getting ready to go to her aid. We came back only on Thursday, or rather Friday morning. My hands so full that I could not write to Darwin, to whom I owe a long letter, till to-night. I will now inclose your note. It would be very like a chemist to think that exter- nal influences will explain everything. » But I pre- sume he believes that peculiarities are heritable. If he does, then he thinks he can explain, or will be able to explain, the origination of variations. I cannot, that is, to any extent, and do not expect to. When VSS Piel od Bog PARTON se ‘ REPL Ds Le A £7. 50.] TO R. W. CHURCH. 463 he will show us how external influences actually worked to change a peach into a nectarine, I will consider his proposition. If he means by “ external influences ”’ whatever has brought about the change, very well. I, of course, allow that every variation has a cause, a physical cause. But it seems to me you may as well say that conception and the production of a normal offspring is the result of “external influences” as the production of an abnormal (variant) offspring. But there is no use writing at random. You ask me whether I adhere to my notions before expressed, without at all showing me how they have been impugned. I should rather expect Guyot to indorse Beaumont; a theological bias would act strongly. But I rely most on Lartet, Coulon, and Pictet, for the age of deposit. Yet it may still be an open ques- ee Darwin, on account of his health, has to live away from London, and is a recluse. I give no letters to him, least of all to a lively inquisitive Yankee like Beecher, who would give him a fit of dyspepsia at once, from mere excitement. I have the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg honorary membership; quite a feather, as they are choice and few. Diploma just come. Ever yours, A. GRAY. TO R. W. CHURCH. May 7, 1861. It was very good of you to write to me (by your letter of 28th of March) when I believe that a former letter of yours was still unacknowledged by me. Your letters always give me much pleasure. 464. LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. (1861, What you say of “ Essays and Reviews ” seems to me most sensible and well considered ; the best thing I have read about the book, viz., that, “ with many good and true things in it, it is a reckless book,” and that some of the writers had not taken the trouble to clear up their own thoughts and to form orderly and consistent notions before publishing upon such deli- cate topics. I have not yet read the book; have only looked it over, and read some of the criticisms. When have a few days’ leisure in the country, in July, I mean to read it carefully. After the flurry is over, I hope the book will receive the proper kind of han- dling in England, by the proper men. I wish you would think it in your way to write an essay upon some of the points at issue, upon which inconsiderate views are likely to be taken upon either side. I confess to a strong dislike of Baden Powell’s writings. He seems to have had a coarse, material- istic, non-religious mind; at least, he is not the sort of man I should select to illustrate the delicate rela- tions between religion and science. I am gratified, also, by your apprehending the spirit and object of my essay! on Darwin so much better than many who write to me about it. All it pretends to is to warn the reckless and inconsiderate to state the case as it is; to protest against the folly of those who would, it would seem, go on to fire away the very ramparts of the citadel, in the defense of needless outposts ; and, as you justly remark, to clear the way for a fair discussion of the new theory on its merits and evidence. We must use the theory a while in botany and in zodlogy, and see how it will work; in 1 Reviews of Darwin’s Origin of Species — Darwiniana. tl i aa aaa #7. 50.] TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. 465 this way a few years will test it thoroughly. I incline to think that its principles will be to a certain extent admitted in science, but that, as Darwin conceives it, it will prove quite insufficient. s to our country, we have been, as a people, un- dergoing a steady demoralization for the last fifteen or twenty years, the natural end of which lately seemed to be that we should crumble into decay almost with- out an effort at recovery. If it had been sought under legal forms and in a less outrageous spirit, I think the North would have consented to the peaceful separation of the cotton States, and we should have prospered by the separation. But it has become clear that there would be no living with such a people as our neigh- bors would be, so long as they allow themselves (against the better judgment of the best) to be ruled by the political demagogues who now hold sway over them. It is clear we must fight, and we had better do it now, and fight for the integrity of the country and the enforcement of the laws. So we are fairly and justly in it, and we are going to conquer the South. They have appealed to force. They must abide the consequences of the appeal, and, we trust, God will help the right. So you may expect to hear of stirring times here. Ever, with great regard, Yours most cordially, Asa GRay. TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. January 25, 1861. The Union is overthrown by a conspiracy which ,. would have been kept within bounds, and soon shut itself up, if the border slave States cared enough for the Union to take hold, or even allow it to be arrested or checked. But no, they must become insane, like 466 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1861, the rest, and help it along. Virginia will not take hold and second Kentucky and Tennessee, fighting nobly by Johnson, Crittenden, ete., declare against treason first, and then arrange terms, which are all ready, all they want, for composing the difficulties. But Cottondom will not have peace and union, and Virginia, ete., are foolish enough to help their game. That the border Southern States will be the principal sufferers will be only a righteous retribution for their ilt. If, in fact, we only belong to a partnership which any of the partners can dissolve at will, then the Union is not worth having. We must do the best we can without it, and if Missouri would prosper, she should stay with us. If peace is wanted, the reasonable proposition, “no more territory to be acquired without a majority of two thirds of the States,” would give it. With that you may do what you like, or rather what you can, in the present Territories. No more of the continent is worth having, either for North or South. Posterity will judge rightly, and Toombs, Cobb, Floyd, ete., will go down to their graves as base, dis- honored traitors. My fighting days are over, anyway. I have had the misfortune to lose the end of my left thumb, by an accident, just at the base of the nail. May 25, 1861. I am very glad to hear from you. I believe I have a former letter from you unanswered. Lately I mailed to you some botanical pamphlets, one containing the Xantus California plants.!_ But in these times I had 1L. J. Xantus de Vesey. Collected at Fort Tejon in 1857-1859 for the Smithsonian Institution. x7. 50.] TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. 467 not the heart to write you. You have seen your dream of peace policy fall in pieces, and Douglas coming out for the war. You have also seen enough to perceive that under the let-alone policy Missouri also would have seceded, under the same discipline which has been applied elsewhere. In which event, let alone, St. Louis would dwindle to a country village. No, the first and paramount duty of a country is to protect and preserve itself against destruction. The Constitution and government must be maintained, and treason put down if we are able to do it. If it can’t be done, then, and then only, may we submit to disintegration. Stick firm to the Union, and Missouri will come out well. Iam sorry for the bloodshed at St. Louis. Your population is hard to manage. But Harney, as you say, is doing well, and I expect to see your State soon a loyal one. Even those with secession affinities must soon see their own interests. It is impossible there should be peace, — peace is not worth having till the rebellion, based on a plot formed years ago, is put down. If you think me belligerent, I am nothing to Agas- siz. Of course we shall all suffer severely. But better to suffer in devotion to the Union than prosper in petty fragments. Enough of this. May God preserve and keep you, and let us hear from you when you can; for we take great interest in you, and know your position is a try- ing one. . CAMBRIDGE, August 6, 1861. My prar EncEetmann, — As soon as I got clear of college work, my wife and I started off (on the 12th 468 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1861, of July) to visit my mother and friends in Oneida County, New York, where we rode and drove about in the fine air, over a most beautiful country, an enjoyed ourselves to the full, to her great advantage ; also mine. Then we cut across the State to Pennsyl- vania, visited the coal region of north Pennsylvania ; traveled very leisurely; passed through New York, seeing the Torreys three hours, and so to Litchfield, Connecticut, where Mrs. G. is left, and I am at home, to set to work again, having done nothing in botany except to teach since last April. Now I am going to set to work as soon as corre- spondence is glearast off. I found here also a letter from Dr. Parry,! and have named the specimens in both, sending the answer to you for forwarding, also Dr. Parry’s letter to me. He can’t miss it if he keeps at work between Den- ver and Salt Lake, climbing to truly alpine regions as often as he ean. Dr. Hooker sent me last spring a fine cast of a bust of Robert Brown. ay I have also from him a splendid one of his father, Sir William. Tell Fendler that Mr. Shaw should procure both if possible for the Library of Hort. Bot., Missouri. What next? A young gardener has found a local- ity of Calluna vulgaris, covering almost an acre, within twenty-five miles of Boston; a case to add to Scolo- pendrium, Marsilea, ete., but most of all, striking and unexpected. It grows in low ground, and has every appearance of being indigenous. 1 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, lowa, — where is his herbarium. “abrir wareptontaiyy ieee eeie | i a ele &T. 51.] TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. 469 August 27. I hope and trust that Frémont will be strong enough to keep the war out of your neighborhood. The citizens of Missouri ought to volunteer in such numbers as to keep the rebels out of the State and keep the State true and firm in the Union. It is the cheapest and most honorable way, and will save pro- perty, avoid distress, ete. This rebellion is certainly going to be put down, no matter at what cost, and property at St. Louis will be worth more than ever yet before you and I reach three score and ten. November 11. I think very little of Unionists who have been “made Secessionists” by anything. What matter whether you have one fifth, one tenth, or four fifths Unionists, if they will not fight to put down Seces- sionists, — they might as well be Secessionists out and out. Marciand and Missouri will not and must not be allowed to secede or to do seceders’ work, cost what it will. And it is a great blessing to them that we restrain them. The Union must be preser ved ; suffering is a very small matter in comparison —all must take their part, and the rebels must suffer hard till they give up. We are only beginning to fight. If Missouri wanted security she should have put down her secessionists herself with the strong hand, at the beginning. So of Kentucky. But she has been forced to find out and feel her duty and her honor, and to act. God save the Union, and confusion to all trai- tors. 470 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1861, TO DANIEL CADY EATON. CAMBRIDGE, October 4, 1861. Your three parcels and letter of October first have duly come. I believe I never answered your note of I can’t abide writing letters nowadays. But I think often of you. You are happy in being able to do something direct. I wish I could. Find me a useful place in the army, and I will go at once. My wife and I have scraped up $550, all we can scrape, and lent it to the United States. I am amazed that people do not come forward with their money — those that can’t go to fight. I wish I could do both... . I have to-day a letter from Wright, September 4. He is of late botanizing with more spirit than for- merly. A sailing-vessel is up here for Santiago. I shall write by it, the United States mail by steamer being so interrupted, and perhaps send some _publica- tions, newspapers, etc. But.I shall leave for you to send the “ Flora of the British West Indies,” as you suggest. I could not spare my copy. I hope this taking up of large lentil vessels means something, and something prompt and thor- ough. Thus far one is sick and sad, so little is done. I had some hopes that your good father would be put at the head of the Commissary Department. I trust he will get promotion somewhat according to his deserts anyhow. Oh for faithful and honest officers and officials! . . . xT. 51.] TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. 471 TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. CAMBRIDGE, January 15, 1862. I do not like to write to you much about the war, and that is much reason why I have not sooner replied to yours of December 9. My brother-in-law and his cousin are both officers in Burnside’s expedition, which we expect will do something. Mrs. Gray and I send warmest New Year greet- ings to you and Mrs. E., and hope you may feel all right and country safe in 1863. February 20. Bravo for Illinois, to which victory at Fort Donel- son is due, and bravo for Tennessee and Alabama full of Union men! Does not your old Union blood rise? Pray, now drop all your let-treason-alone, do- nothing-disorganizing notions, and go in for the coun- try, the whole country, reinstate it first, and then we will all go in and make it what it should be. The un- generous conduct of England shows what a condition we should be in as a fraction, and she playing off one portion against the other, and bullying both. I pray Congress to put on taxes, five per cent di- rect on property and income, and heavy indirect be- sides. What is property! I would fight till every cent is gone, and would offer my own life freely; so I do not value the lives or property of rebels above my own. God bless you. May 22. A most lovely spring here. We all flourish and prosper, and rejoice in the strengthening of our na- tional power, and advancing restoration of the Union, 472 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1860, with hopes of hanging leaders of the rebellion, ex- iling a good many, and pardoning all the rank and file who will come back with a good grace to their allegiance. If they will not, let them beware! Ve victis to such, The country is to be kept in the Union. If the people choose to stay, let them, and peace be with them. they wish to emigrate, very well. he North, aided by immigrating Teutons, has great col- onizing power, and we can rapidly settle Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, ete. There, this is enough for the present to rile you. As to Euphorbias, the published names here must take precedence to unpublished names of Shuttle- worth, ete. Ever your most peaceful friend, Asa Gray. TO CHARLES DARWIN. CaMBRIDGE, October 10, 1860. Thanks for very interesting letter of September 10. IT am much pressed now, or would write a long gossip- ing letter. The bound copy of “ Origin” is just received from Murray. Many thanks. . I believe I have seen a pod or two of Horseradish ; but they are rare. Your germinations show curious resemblance of dimorphic-crosses with hybrid-crosses, as shown by Naudin; very interesting and capital points for you. I imagine it is now universally felt here that if we do not do it [i. e., carry on the fighting] we shall have to eat much dirt; that the establishment of a rival power on our long southern line of the free States, to be played off against us, is not to be sub- ET Oe ee ee 7. 49.] TO CHARLES DARWIN. 473 mitted to if it ean be prevented at any sacrifice. God help us, indeed, if our honorable existence is to have no better safeguard than the generosity or sense of justice of more powerful nations! As to slavery, the course of things is getting to meet your views, as it is clear must be, if the South continues obstinate. If they give up war they may save their institution in their own States, to have the chance of abolishing it themselves in the only safe and easy way, with time and the gradual competition of white labor. But obstinate resistance will surely bring on wide-sweep- ing manumission. You see that we are not going to have war [with England] at present. And it appears that the deci- sion of our government will be as unitedly and thor- oughly sustained by the whole people as if it had been the other way; contrary to Mr. Russell’s pre- diction, and to our dear friend Dr. Boott’s, who writes about our “mob” in a way he would not if he were here to see. Look at an English mob urging up their government so that they felt obliged to back up their demands, with a menacing force on our borders ; and making such a peremptory demand as you justly say, “ entirely on Wilkes’ acting as judge ;”’ a matter which our government would as promptly concede as yours could ask. Seemann! wrote me that the general belief at the clubs and in the City was that our government wanted to get into war with England for an excuse to give up the South. A pretty sea they must have of our wis- dom and discretion! Dear Boott is firmly convinced that we have all along been trying to quarrel with id Seemann, shina ; editor of the Journal of Botany, British o ae Foreign, ete., 474. LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1860, England. The belief here is nearly universal the other way, and those who like England best, and per- haps the coolest and best-informed men, have been more and more dissatisfied as time went on. What has caused this lamentable state of things, this complete misunderstanding? Plainly this: the secessionists in England have adroitly managed the matter and led public opinion in various lines, but all in one direction, inimical to us; and they did not think it too great a stretch to make John Bull be- lieve that we were insane enough to want an English quarrel. In this they have been ably seconded by a few papers here, mainly by those whose loyalty is deeply suspected, and whose influence is as nothing; which are nearly as scurrilous as the “ Saturday Re- view,’ with no redeeming ability, and you have the result. Will the evidence that this mail carries satisfy the English that we want to live in peace with them ? But as to good feeling, I am afraid it is too late to expect that. We were hurt at first by your putting our rebels on the same footing as a government with which yours was in most amicable relations, —and by the general assumption at once that we were gone past redemption, by the failure to see that the power had gone from the hands of those who were always making trouble with your government in some petty way or other, ete., till I think it is generally believed that the gov- erning influence in England desires to have us a weak and divided people, and would do a good deal to secure it. Tam sorry to say that this is the — feeling ; and this is now very much intensifi F xT. 49.] TO CHARLES DARWIN. 475 The feelings of many are very hostile, and they would like to be strong that they might show it. Those of others, who have been exceedingly fond of England, always defending her when possible, and these are mine, are, that we must be strong to be se- cure and respected, — natural selection quickly crushes out weak nations; that we have tried long enough to have intimate relations between the governments, or the peoples in general. Naturalists, etc., being enlightened people, can be as intimate as they like ; but nationally let each say, “God bless you, and let us see as little of each other as possible,” each going our own way. Well, enough of this. Some of the representations of us in the English papers would be amusing if they did not now do so great harm. One would think it was generally thought that there was no law and order here, nor gentlemanly conduct, nor propriety of deportment among the poorer and laboring people. I wish you could come and see. As to such things, and as to intelligence, education, etc., I have sometimes thought of the picture one could draw from individual cases. Take one — very confidentially — for I would not hurt a really good fellow by exposing his ignorance of what he might be expected to know. Here we lately had a Cambridge graduate (F. L. S., and godson of an English baronet) who in one conversation let us know most frankly that he had no idea where Quito was, or that there were two houses of Congress in the United States, and was puzzled to know whether Bos- ton, United States, time was faster or slower than that of Greenwich! . . . 476 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1862, February 18, 1862. Accept a hasty line at the present, when I am busy above measure. Thanks for the Primula paper, which I have barely looked over. I do hope that you and the other fourteen of your household are out of bed and done with influenza. As Lhave not given you up notwithstanding your very shocking principles and prejudices against de- sign in nature, so we shall try to abide your longitudi- narian defection. I suppose it is longitude, and I am sorry to see that there is a wide and general desire in that meridian that we (United States) should fall to pieces. But the more you want us to, the more we won’t, and the more important it appears to us that we should be a strong and unbroken power. God help us, if we do not keep strong enough, at what- ever cost now it may be, to resist the influence of a country which looks upon the continuation of our steady policy to protect and diversify our domestic industry as a wrong and sin against it. No, no, we must have our own wa But the triumph of the Republicans was the clas destruction of the very people who were always making trouble with Eng- land, and, if you would only let us and have some faith in the North, we should have been permanently on the best of terms. What you complain of in the Boston dinner! was indeed lamentable ; such men should not have talked bosh, even at a little private ovation, and we have reason to know some of them were heartily ashamed of it as soon as they saw it in print. It was immedi- ately spoken of here, by influential people, some of ' 1 The dinner after the capture of Mason and Slidell. se aay aeeeaaninaae at. 51.] TO CHARLES DARWIN. 477 whom refused to attend the dinner, and in at least one paper, in a tone like your own. It was really as bad as the speeches of some members of Parliament, and worse because it was foolish. The fact is, a set of cunning fellows on both sides of the water (but here utterly characterless) have contrived to make both English and Yankees believe that each was bent upon quarreling with the other. Your thinking of me “as an Englishman” would once have been a compliment, and is what from my well-known feelings and expressions I have passed for among my friends here. Had the North gone on giv- ing in to the South as for years past, I should have been one, at least in residence, just as soon as I could have got out of the country. I thank God, it has been otherwise, and that I have a country to be proud of, and which I will gladly suffer for, if need be. With all its weakness and follies (and I know them well) I go for my country, and to be friendly with those we ought to be on good terms with. I am cured of some illusions. We shall do very well, and the two countries will be on the best of terms when we are strong; till then we must not expect it. If it is the old question of struggle for life, good feeling has not much to do with it: the weak must go to the wall, because it can’t help it. ‘“ Blessed are the strong, for they shall inherit the earth.” My wife, who is loath to strike you from her books, begs you to make allowances for the people here, who were so very cocky at having caught two such ineffa- ble seamps as Mason and Slidell, whom we have rea- son to hate with perfect hatred; that they thought of nothing else, and did not mean to be saucy to Eng- land. But you have made us sore, there is no deny- ing it. We did not allow enough for longitude. 478 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1862, Her former message did not refer to Boott (though he is unfortunately influenced by longitude ; but is a Yankee born), nor to Hooker, who, Gallio fashion, cares for none of these things; thinks us unwise for fighting, I presume; but we perfectly agree to say nothing about such matters. It is odd that you all fail to appreciate that it is simply a struggle for ex- istence on our part, and that men will persist in think- ing their existence of some consequence to themselves, though you prove the contrary ever so plain ; and will strike or grasp or kick, right and left, in an undigni- fied way sometimes; which the safe and sound by- stander, coolly looking on, may not appreciate, not sharing his feelings, telling him the world will get on quite as well without him; yet he somehow does not quite like it. March 6. I have your note of February 16, about Melasto- macee. The test of a good theory is said to be its power of predicting. If your speculations lead you to predict the style curved to one side in Melastoma- cez, and the prediction is verified, that will be a great matter in your favor. Why, you are coming out so strong in final causes that they should make a D. D. of you at Cambridge! I shall be pleased if I can help you about Rhexia. R. Virginica grows not far from here, and I will set to watching it next summer. But I fear it may not help you, as it is stated in our “Flora of North America” to have “anthers uniform.” I see, however, the phrase, “ style somewhat declined,” in the. character ; which must be looked to. The character was drawn wholly from dried specimens. I have good details from - sk eo ae ES ne ot a en ne ee Oe ee eee ee leer ere Tepe tr oe oe et ate a een ae ee ee, ere tae xT. 51.] TO CHARLES DARWIN. 479 fresh ones drawn by Mr. Sprague, but cannot just now lay hands on them. Freely point out anything else you want looked at. I have now a very zealous pupil, who will be glad to be intrusted with looking up plants and observing. Ever yours, cordially, Asa GRray. There is some jolly science in the “Saturday Re- view,” now and then; as in December 28, p. 665, where we are informed that icebergs “are formed by the splashing of the waves on the coast of Labra- dor.” Mill being “the greatest logician in England,” I send you an American reprint of a specimen of his logic, which I know you will like. We are very sad here at the death of the president of our university,! who had also many warm friends in England. March 31. Yours of the 15th came this evening. To-morrow I am busy all day in college (where I began my course this year with lectures on Fertilization, devel- oping your views on orchid-insect fertilization, dimor- phism, ete., ete., to an interested class !), so I must drop a line for you into a letter for Boott, for Wednesday’s post. A friend has just handed me Morell’s new book, which, looking at psychology from the physiological side, I see brings up several notions which have been turning over in my mind for some years. He is coming out a good Darwinian, I see, and is quite of my way of thinking about design. You see I am 1 President C. C. Felton. 480 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1862, determined to baptize [“The Origin of Species ”], nolens volens, which will be its salvation. But if you won’t have it done, it will be damned, I fear... . Things move on here, on the whole, very well. Yes, I will promise not to hate you; quite the con- trary ! Our sensitiveness as to England was the natural re- sult of the strong filial feeling on our part. It was very undignified, I dare say. But I think we are get- ting bravely over it, and getting really not to care what the Old Country may think or say, so it lets us alone. As to Rebeldom, there is now hardly any State that we have not got some foothold in. I do not do so much scientific work as before the war, but still I keep pottering away. From now till July, I can expect to do little besides my college duties. Ever, dear Darwin, your cordial friend and true Yankee, A. Gray. May 18. Yesterday came by post the sheets B-I of your Orchid book. This evening (Sunday) I have opened the par- cel and read introduction and chapter i. What a charming book it is! You are right in issuing it in this form. It would be a sin not to do so. I fear, though, that no publisher would reprint it here; though I may, on reading farther, conclude to offer it to the Appletons, who should have the refusal. But it will surely be popular in England, where or- chids are popular and the species known to most intelligent and educated people. I hope soon to get the other sheets. I am perfectly delighted with #7. 51.) TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 481 O. pyramidalis, and must extract the whole account of its fertilization for ‘¢ Silliman’s Journal.” Our only orchis, that is, O. spectabilis, I brought last summer from western New York, and planted. I shall in @ week have three or four spikes coming into flower, and I will cover one and leave the others exposed. They are in a wooded part of the garden, like their natural habitat. The rest of our Ophry- deze are Habenarias (Platanthera). I must recur to your letter about Cypripedium and see what you wanted of it, that is, what observation. If there be any adaptation, be it ever so pretty, I shall never see it without your direction. What a skill and genius you have for these researches! Even for the structure of the flower of the Ophyridex I have to-night learned more than I ever knew before. TO A. DE CANDOLLE. CAMBRIDGE, April 26, 1861. My pear Frrenp, — My duties in the university at this season are very pressing. Besides, we are now opening a war, upon the determination of which our very existence depends, and upon which we are to concentrate all our strength and soul, so I have no time nor heart to write of botany just now. .. . Ever, dear De Candolle, yours most cordially, Asa Gray. December 16. We do not often exchange letters now, and in these for us trying times in the United States, though far removed from the actual scenes of war, and not much interrupted in my botanical studies, except by dis- tracting thoughts, I write as few letters as lean. The 482. LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1862, unfriendly attitude of England gives us much con- cern. Were it not for that, it is thought we should soon put an end to our rebellion. But I will not write of such matters now. July 2, 1862. No fear about our army, now so great. It is largely composed of materials such as nothing but a high sense of duty could keep for a year in military life. It will dissolve like last winter’s snow when no more needed. While I write, a great battle is in progress, decisive if we gain it and take the rebel capital, simply pro- longing the strife if we do not. We can raise at once another army if need be; and yet another. Indeed 300,000 more men are now to be accepted, to recruit our ranks and make a sure thing of the result. - Confident of our cause, we expect confidently the favor of Providence. . . . What a charming book is that of Darwin on orchid fertilization ! TO CHARLES WRIGHT. CamprinGE, April 17, 1862. I am at work in college now, you know, and it is very hard work. This last vacation I had to make a new edition and new additions to my “ Manual,” ete., and to do it in a hurry, and I have at length, for the first time, found out that I am growing old. In fact I broke down under it, and have injured my health a little. . . . I doubt if I ever recover the spring and vim of former times. But we shall see. . . . My hard work has got correspondence all horridly behindhand, and determined me to draw in my horns, xT. 51.] TO CHARLES WRIGHT. 483 and drop a good deal of it. My desk has long been so covered deep with unanswered letters, etc., that I have abandoned it, and now sit over on the other side of the table. If I sit down and answer a letter right off the day it comes, as I am now doing with yours, and as I do with purely business lobtens,, ete., then it is safe. If I add it to the heap, it is a gone case, and I fear will never be really answered. Eaton, too, as you know, has been very hard worked, in his father’s office. Well, there is no State now in some part of which the star-spangled banner does not float. Lincoln is a trump, a second Washington, steady, conservative, no fanatical abolitionist. Foote, of your State of Con- necticut, is putting down his foot on the Mississippi. McClellan is to fight a great battle at Yorktown. Another bloody battle may be fought near Corinth, Mississippi. New Orleans will soon be ours, please God, and then this wicked rebellion will be done for. I pray God I may live to see the end of it, and the States brought back, quietly if they will, forcibly if they must. I know it will rejoice your heart to see the thing done. And it will be worth all it costs. Come now, here is a good long letter for a man as tired as I to write, who has been five or six hours in lecture-room, working hard. August I. Here is a bit of reading for you, — substitute for letters, which in truth I have not surfeited you with lately. Who can write letters in these trying times ? . Last spring my health felt pretty seriously im- 484. LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1862, paired. But by end of June I was able to diminish my college work a little, and take the rest easier, and so now I feel very much better, more like my old self, and I am beginning to clear off my table that I may get at work again on that everlasting South Pacific Exploring Expedition. There is a charming book out, by Darwin, on the fertilization of orchids by insects. It will open your eyes to most curious things. I have verified much myself here, and made observations which Darwin regards as very interesting. I send you a copy of the book through Eaton, as a present. Any observations or notes you make I will send to Darwin. TO CHARLES DARWIN. July 2, 1862. I am glad if my off-hand orchid notes interest you, or prove of the least use. I am daily expecting a copy to send you of my notice of the early chapters of your book. I will continue in the ensuing number. And whatever of the notes I send you seem to you worth touching upon, you have only to indicate them, and send back my memoranda, and I will take them up. But as to Cypripediums, I should like to have an opportunity of examining them (except C. acaule) more at large, and growing. A week from to-morrow, I expect to be able to leave Cambridge, to go down, with my examination papers to read, to my beau-pere’s place on the shore, for afew days. Then I will try to look up and bring home living Rhexia Virginica; and also I expect to have a look at Calopogon pulchellus, with its strong bearded labellum. And I hope it will not be too late PS OR RR BPE RTP EE iP eA PNR TNT Weise alts Soe Ae ene CE ee Te TC Se a ee eee a PTS eee ee ET. 51.] TO CHARLES DARWIN. 485 to get plenty of Mitchella repens, which my pupils do not bring me in as they ought. I want to see if long- styled stigma and short differ, and also the pollen of the two, as they do in Houstonia, of which I hope I sent you Rothrock’s! observations. At least I will send when he has completed them. Precocious fertilization in the bud was much noticed here very long ago by Torrey, in Viola, Specularia, ete., etc., also in Impatiens, about which see my * Genera Illustrata,” volume ii. I once mentioned it to you as good evidence of close fertilization. As to pollen-tubes of such, I have no observations of my own, but a memory or fancy that they were shown to me by Torrey. I will ask him, and have him look at Specularia. As to the French lady’s translation and commen- tary on the “Origin,” I am not so much surprised, As I view it, there are only two sides to the main question. Very likely she takes one side in a thorough-going and consistent manner; and either she is right, or I am right, i. e., there is design in na- ture, or there is not. The no-design view, if one can bring himself to entertain it, may well enough lead to all she says, and we may very much admire how collision and destruction of least-favored brings about appar- ently orderly results, — apparent contrivances or ad- aptation of means to ends. On the other hand, the implication of a designing mind must bring with it a strong implication of design in matters where we could not directly prove it. If you grant an intelligent designer anywhere in 1 J. Trimble Rothrock, of MeVeytown, Pennsylvania, b. 1839; bot- anist of Wheeler’s Survey of the United States Expedition to Alaska ; late professor in the University of Pennsylvania. 486 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1862, Nature, you may be confident that he has had some- thing to do with the “ contrivances” in your orchids. I have just received and glanced at Bentham’s ad- dress, and am amused to see how your beautiful flank movement with the Orchid book has nearly overcome his opposition to the “ Origin.” The military simile above leads me to speak of your wonder that I can think of science at all in the midst of war. Well, first, we get used toit. Second, we need something to turn to, and happy are they who, forbidden to engage personally in the war (as I am ever itching to do), have something to turn to. Third, I do not do much, do nothing, in fact, except my col- lege duties now for months, and that is the reason I have time to write to you, and be interested in all your doings. If you suppose everything is paralyzed and desolate here, and the country greatly put back, read a very sensible letter of an Englishman in the “ Spectator ” of June 7. It is very just and true. We shall recuper- ate fast enough, and be better off than ever, as much prosperity as is good for us, and more solid, more in- dependent, more self-contained, which is our great de- sideratum. Free trade be blowed; we must needs have high duties on imports, and it is better that we should. By these and by direct taxes— the tax-bill just passed — we shall have to pay over largely. Very well. Just at present our prospects (viz., evening of July 3) are looking badly enough. McClellan has clearly been overmatched and driven to the wall, after very obstinate fighting, with very heavy loss on both sides. Whether it is retrievable with reinforcements, or whether the whole campaign has to be begun again oe Ree at eee ee ee es x7. 51.] TO CHARLES DARWIN. 487 against Richmond, is not yet clear. Anyway we have got to put shoulder to the wheel anew, and it may be done, we suppose, more easily and far more promptly than last-year. All we ask is that Europe shall let us alone. Enough for to-day. Provivence, R. 1., July 29, 1862. No more news in the orchids line. I am making two or three days of holiday, and yesterday I found a few specimens of Gymnadenia tridentata. But the flowers are too small to examine well with a hand lens. If they keep, I will take them back to Cam- bridge in a day or two and see what to make of them. ... As to the country, you will see by this time that we have not the least idea of abandoning the struggle. We have learned only that there is no use trying any longer to pick up our eggs gently, very careful not to break any. The South forces us at length to do what it would have been more humane to have done from the first, i. e., to act with vigor, not to say rigor. We shall be complained of for our savageness, no doubt, whereas we feel that our error has been all the other way. But the independence, the total indiffer- ence to English feeling which you recommended last year, has come at length; now we care nothing what s. Grundy says. CAMBRIDGE, September 22, 1862. Your pleasant epistles of August 21 and Septem- ber 4 are to be acknowledged, with thanks. But I have nothing in particular to communicate, except 488 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. (1862, our hearty congratulations that your boy and Mrs. Darwin are recovering so well. Tell Leonard that I was pleased both with his at- tention in writing and with the ocular proof of his convalescence in his being able so soon to use a pen. His requests shall be kept in view; the five-cent stamp I send now; dare say I shall sometime pick up the thirty and ninety, though I never saw the lat- ter, nor the twelve, twenty, and twenty-four on enve- lopes (the twenty-four cent he must have already, as it is often used on my envelopes to you). Bravo for Horace, whose illustration of Natural Se- lection as to the adders is capital, A chip of the old block, he evidently is. I told you that Rothrock had gone to the war, and perhaps has already been under fire; probably not. I had intended that next spring he should do up Houstonia more perfectly, and work up this and some related matters for his thesis when he comes up for examination. But all this is broken up by his enlist- ment. ... I have been lazy about all my writing, working all day at dry and dull systematic botany, which you anathematize. But if I get time to turn it over, I will say a few words on the last chapter of your Or- chid book. But it opens up a knotty sort of question about accident or design, which one does not care to meddle with much until one can feel his way further than I can. October 4, 1862. I have just been reading Max Miiller’s lecture on the Science of Language-with much interest. But perhaps what has interested me most is, after all, his 7. 51.] TO CHARLES DARWIN. 489 perfect appreciation and happy use of Natural Selec- tion, and the very complete analogy between diversi- fication of species and diversification of language. I can hardly think of any publication which in England could be more useful to your cause than this volume is, or should be. I see also with what great effect you may use it in our occasional discussion about design ; indeed I hardly see how to avoid conclusion adverse to special design, though I think I see indi- cations of a way out. Depend on it, Max Miiller will be of real service to you. October 15. I have been so much occupied that I deferred to the last moment to write out my second notice of your Orchid book for ‘ Silliman’s Journal.” I wrote out Saturday evening what I could, and to-day have finished and sent off my manuscript to New Haven. The greater part consists of a record of some of my observations last summer, very hurriedly penned, and sent off. I trust you will be pleased, and will think that my little contributions cannot be better hatched than under your wings. I hope that my young correspondent is fast recov- ering strength. Tell him that I have no more stamps for him yet, but shall pick up his desiderata one of these days. I have some nice live roots of Cypripedium, two or three species to send you, and mean to send Mitchella. How Hooker does a up your book, in the “Gardener’s Chronicle e 490 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1862, CAMBRIDGE, November 10, 1862. It is refreshing to me that you find the special cor- respondent of the “Times” detestable. Your comments upon our affairs always show such a good spirit that you need not fear even my wife’s “indignation.” We are sorry that you suffer in England; but you must blame the rebels for it, not us, and your Man- chester people should have looked earlier to India for cotton. You don’t see, as you would if here, the total im- possibility of coming to any terms of peace with the South, based on their independence. Before that can be they or we must be thoroughly beaten. You can’t be expected to see too, what seems plain to me, that you English would give us no end of trouble if we attempt a piecemeal existence. We must be strong enough to keep any Old-World power at bay. Then we shall behave pretty well, on the whole; surely so when the North is dominant and is fairly treated. * Seizing on Canada.”’ What do we want of Canada? When the South was aggressive and making slave States we often looked to the peaceful acquisition of Canada as desirable, as a counterpoise. But when we had “changed all that,’ —and it is changed, and slavery limited, past all doubt, however the combat ends, — we no longer have use or need of Canada. If we get set up again, we have work enough at home, and our hands full for years ; we shall be strong for “defense, but weak for aggression. The ill-feeling to England will die out when we are well able to defend ourselves and our home interests. It does seem that all England wishes us to be weak and divided; perhaps that is good national policy. zr, 52.] TO CHARLES DARWIN. 491 But the more that is so, the more necessary it is for us to vindicate our integrity, at whatever cost. Let us have it out now, even at the cost of ten times what it has cost so far. I never thought anything of American institutions for England. Aristocracy is a natural and needful appendage to monarchy. You work out your own type, and you will liberalize fast enough, and leave us to do ours. We'll make it do, with some jangling. I wish we could be shut up, like the Japanese of old, for ten or twenty years, only with a weekly mail from you and Dr. Hooker. Well, well! Ever yours cordially, Asa Gray. November 24. About Max Miller; surely you can’t wonder that the attempt to account for the “first origin of lan- guage,” or of eayenmg else, should be ‘the “least satisfactory.” The use that I fancied could be made of Max Miil- ler’s book, or rather of the history of language, is some- thing more than illustration, but only a little more ; that is, you may point to analogies of development and diversification of language, of no value at all in evidence in support of your theory, but good and per- tinent as rebutting objections urged against it. Bishop Colenso’s book will make a noise in Eng- land ; indeed, I have only read the notice in the “ Athenzeum.” You detest the spirit of the “ Times” quoad U. S. The “ Atheneum” is just as bad in its little penny- trumpet way, every chance it can get, from the first. Can you be much surprised that we return dislike with interest? But we are pleased to find there are sensible and fair writers, such as Cairnes and Mill. - 492 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1862, No, dear Darwin, we don’t scorn your joining in the prayer that we daily offer that “ God would help our poor country,” and I know and appreciate your honest and right feeling. I see also, from the English papers I read, how you must picture us as in the extreme of turmoil and con- fusion and chaos. But if you were here, you would open your eyes to see everything going on quietly, hopefully, and comfortably as possible. I suppose we do not appreciate our miseries. We accept our mis- fortunes and adversities, but mean to retrieve them, and would sink all that we have before giving up. We work hard, and persevere, and expect to come out all right, to lay the foundations of a better future, no matter if they be laid in suffering. That will not hurt us now, and may bring great good here- after. I never saw, and have scarcely heard of, Miss Cooper’s book you ask after. She is the daughter of the late J. Fenimore Cooper, the novelist. The vil- lage she describes must be Cooperstown, New York, in the county adjacent to that in which I was brought up, — a region which, every time I visit it, I say it is the fairest of lands, and the people the happiest. Oh, as to the weeds; Mrs. Gray says she allows that our weeds give up to yours. Ours are modest, wood- and, retiring things, and no match for the intrusive, pretentious, self-asserting foreigners. But I send you seeds of one native weed which, corrupted by bad com- pany, is as nasty and troublesome as any I know, namely, Sicyos angulatus; also of a more genteel Cucurbitacea, Echinocystis lobata (the larger seeds). Upon these, especially upon the first, I made my ob- servation of tendrils coiling to the touch. Put the SE Ee Tae eal a a ey Le ee ar. 51.] TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. 493 seeds directly into the ground ; they will come up in spring, in moist garden | soil. My observations were made on a warm, sunny day. I doubt if you have warmth and sunshine enough in England to get up a sensible movement. My note about them is in “ Proceedings of the American Academy,” iv., p. 98, reprinted in “ Silli- man’s Journal,” March, 1859, p. 277. I must own that upon casually taking them up since, I never have obtained such very good results as upon two days of August, 1858. Upon gourds affecting each other’s fruits, I have made no observations at all. I have only referred to that, as a well-known thing, at least, of common repute here, and then referred to maize, where the soft sweet-corn, when fertilized by hard yellow-corn, the grain so fertilized takes the character of the fer- tilizer. My note about it is in Academy “ Proceed- ings,” vol. iv., I think. You have the volumes (which I have not in reach now), and can find it by the index. Tt does not amount to much. Nothing on maize I know of except Bonafous’ folio volume. I am going to get and send you grains of four or five sorts of maize. About the involucrate form, 1 wrote m my last. TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. CAMBRIDGE, 14th October, 1862. Drar Enceimann, — Never mind turmoil. It will _ come out right. I go against the abolition wing, but support the President in his Proclamation. If the rebels continue obstinate, that is only a ques- tion of time. Of that, as a military measure, and of the expediency, the President of the United States is 494. LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. (1862, the sole judge, and in time of war he is to be sup- ported heartily. I myself do not see clearly that the time had come. But I have a notion that the Presi- dent knows better than I. As you like Judge Parker, I will send you an arti- cle written before the Proclamation came out. You will like it, all but the last part, the bitter end. I would continue the war, if necessary, to the sweeping of all rebeldom bare. And that appears to be the sober sentiment of the country. If Judge Parker, ete., had let their convention alone, we would have ousted Sumner for a wiser man. But now I fear that Sumner will be returned to the Senate. You had better in Missouri abolish slavery and take United States bonds in indemnity. You will never do better. TO CHARLES WRIGHT. October 13, 1862. Both Torrey and Eaton speak of having your photo- graph. You cut me, I suppose, because I am such a poor correspondent! I am afraid I deserve it, but what can a poor fellow do in such times as these?.. - A fruit, one of a dozen ripened here this season in the Garden, has such a tropical look and taste that it reminded me of you. It is Asimina triloba! Tastes like a rich custard into which a piece of scented soap has fallen. . . General Stuart with his cavalry has been cutting all round McClellan’s army again. Next time, I expect they will make a circuit as far round as Bos- ton, or at least Connecticut, and carry off the horses. They are more in earnest than we are; but we shall use them up at length. xv. 51] TO CHARLES WRIGHT. 495 November 14. Here I was this afternoon, moiling over your plants, copying out Grisebach’s manuscripts for the printer (for the printer won’t touch the Dutchy-looking thing ; and besides, I have additions to make, ete.), when I just happened to remember that to-morrow is Havana mail, and that I was by all means to write to you to- day. There is still time, so here goes. First, can’t you make some arrangement, while you are at this end of Cuba, to receive a Yankee news- paper by mail; say to the address of Don José Blain, or some Havana address. If you can arrange it that it is not stopped, I will send you papers regularly ; say the little “ Boston Herald,’ small, soon read, demo- cratic, patriotic, or others, from time to time... . As to collecting still, I should say, Yes, go on, in a gradual and cheap way, i. e., do not make very heavy outlays, as long as you are in the country; at least till next summer. For we cannot get the war done until late next spring (except in Texas). If you can do as much for western as for eastern Cuba, it will be a good thing. . Meanwhile I have money eeongh for you, if you can only get it. But how « can you get it at present rates? Or how can I get it to you? If greenbacks would pass there as here, it would be easy enough. Is there not some Yankee product that I could ship to you that Blain or Lescaille wants, sewing-machines, agricultural implements, chairs? So we might save the loss on exchange. I will send you daytiiiog, from a mouse-trap to a wheelbarrow ! You have a letter from me which must have reached you soon after yours of October 25, saying that my 496 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1863, last was eighty-five days old! Indeed, you ought to have had it then... . TO CHARLES DARWIN. January 27, 1863. I have been far too busy to write letters; have been interrupted, too, by visitors, ete. . You “wish to heaven the North aia iat hate us so.” We equally wish the English did not hate us so. Perhaps we exaggerate the ill will in England against us. You certainly over-estimate that of the United States against England, which an influential part of your press exaggerates and incites for the worst pur- poses. But, after all, after the first flurry, we think and say very little about you, and shall live in peace with you, if you will let us. There should have been, and might have been, the most thorough good will be- tween us. I do not think it is all our fault that it is not so. In reply to your question : — If oak and beech had large, colored corolla, ete., I know of no reason why it would be reckoned a low form, but the contrary, quite. But we have no basis for high or low in any class, say, dicotyledons, ex- cept perfection of development or the contrary in the floral organs, and even the envelopes; and as we know these may be reduced to any degree in any order or group, we have really, that I know of, no philoso- phical basis for high and low. Moreover, the vege- table kingdom does not culminate, as the animal kingdom does. It is not a kingdom, but a common- wealth; a democracy, and therefore puzzling and un- accountable from the former point of view. I have just read De Candolle’s paper on oaks and an. 52] TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 497 species, and origin. Well, he has got on about as = towards you as I have. It is clear enough that, s I thought at first, derivation of species is to be val word, and natural selection admitted. The only question is, whether this is enough. Ever your attached friend, . GRAY. TO A. DE CANDOLLE. CAMBRIDGE, February 16, 1863. I am disposed to join issue with you on the question of Linnezus’ definition of species. I have long pon- dered your discussion of the subject in “ Géographie Botanique,”’ and still think, on the supposition of the fixity of species (which Linneus of course had in view), that between ‘community of descent” and “likeness,” the former and not the latter is the fun- damental conception in the idea of species. We may test this by inquiring whether of the two can be de- rived from the other. The likeness, I suppose, is the consequence of the community of descent. But, then, as the likeness is a thing of degrees, and, according to present probabilities, species may have only a ily: tive and temporary fixity, your view will after all have the advantage; and the question of species will come to be metaphysical or logical, rather than nat- ural-historical. The worst of all is that there will remain no objective basis or standard; and species will be what each naturalist thinks best so to con- sider ! I am pleased to know that the view of my article on the “ Memoirs”! is well received by you. Read- “ Memoirs of Augustin Pyramus De Candolle,” Am. Jour. Sct., xxxy. 1-10, 498 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. (1863, able articles are very needful, when they can be had, for a journal which, like Silliman’s, cannot exist with- out popular support. I promised an article of sixteen pages of this character; but I intended to enlarge more at the close upon the genius and influence of your father, and cite your parallel with Linnzus as portrayed by Fabricius. But I found that my pages were filled before I was aware of it, and I had to cut short, much too curtly. It left me with a somehow dissatisfied feeling. All your remarks about the dif- ference between the profound and the prolific bota- nists, I agree to; and I think that both Linnezus and De Candolle had as much genius as Robert Brown. .. . Well, as to origin of species, you have now gone just about as far as I have, in Darwinian direction, and both of us have been led step by step by the facts and probabilities, and have not jumped at con- clusions. I shall be curious to see Mme. Royer’s book; Dar- win has spoken of her. Under my hearty congratulations of Darwin for his striking contributions to teleology, there is a vein of petite malice, from my knowing well that he rejects the idea of design, while all the while he is bringing out the neatest illustrations of it! Did time allow, I should like to write at large upon these enticing topics. . . TO W. J. HOOKER. CAMBRIDGE, March 16, 1863. I received this morning a letter from William Short, announcing to me the death of his lamented father, our excellent friend, Dr. C. W. Short, of Louisville, Kentucky, one of our oldest botanists, and one of the 2 : < ts : a ee eee ee Tee eS ee eee xT. 52.) TO W. J. HOOKER. 499 best of men and kindest of friends. He died on the 7th inst., of a typhoid fever, supervening on a severe cold. I feel the loss very much. Although we never met he was one of my most valued friends. . . . He always remembered his former correspondence with you with great interest, and was particularly pleased when, in my letter, I could give him news of you. His herbarium, upon which he bestowed great pains and considerable expense, is conditionally bequeathed to the Smithsonian Institution. Our botanical Nestor is Dr. Darlington. A few months since I had a letter from him written in as firm a hand as ever ; but now he is prostrated by paralysis, which, however, leaves his mind clear. But he cannot remain much longer with us. Short and Darlington were both hearty and true Christian gentlemen. > April 28, 1863. Your kind letter of the 6th inst. and the photograph were received with more gratification than I can well express. Both your handwriting and your carte de. visite show you to be well and strong, and, please God, long may you so continue. Your face looks fuller than a dozen years ago, and a bit older, it may be, but it recalls your friendly and kindly expression, and is the best substitute I can have for not seeing you again. What I wrote of our Nestor, Dr. Darlington, as about to be removed from us, has come to pass. The good old man died, after much suffering from a paralysis, on Wednesday last, the 22d, as a newspaper slip has apprised me. He had reached the age of 500 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. (1863, eighty-one. Unless we continue to rank Dr. Bigelow among the botanists, Dr. Torrey, and even myself, now count among the most advanced in age. I am most happy to tell you that Dr. Torrey, whom I lately saw in New York, and who last week looked in upon us here for a day, is quite well. Mrs. Greene is cheerful and busy in carrying out her husband’s bequest and desires, in favor of the Boston Natural History Society, to whom he left his herbarium and botanical libra By Professor George Bond, a colleague and neigh- bor of mine, our distinguished astronomer, and a most worthy, amiable, and modest person, whom I hope you may see, I sent out to you a photograph of F. A. Mi- chaux and of Adrien de Jussieu, which I thought you might like, and which I have just had made from daguerreotypes which I induced them to sit for in Paris in 1851. Bond will be delighted to see Kew again with its vast improvements. Ever, dear Sir William, yours affectionately, Asa GRAY. TO MRS. THOMAS P. JAMES. Camprinae, April 30, 1863. I had sent some while ago word to Miss Morris that I had a single seedling Darlingtonia, and should like to know if Dr. Darlington was in condition to be interested in it. But she thought the time had passed for that. His memory will long be venerated. We, at least, shall not forget him. Twenty years ago he had sent to me his selected epitaph, and had discussed it. It is natural and char- acteristic. I should take an interest in seeing such Te ea nee = al > = HT, 52.) TO CHARLES DARWIN. 501 an inscription on his tombstone. But, entre nous, I should not fancy such an one on my own. I should select rather some simple line of Holy Writ, ex- pressive of the Christian trust and faith, such as our friend died in. I had lately been writing brief notices of several of our botanists, deceased, for the May number of “ Silli- man’s Journal” (as you see, I mail a copy just re- ceived) ; and at the time I felt that they probably would not be published before there would be another and more distinguished name to add. I shall not wait for the year to come round, but I hope to draw up a brief tribute to his memory for the July number of “Silliman’s Journal.” So I should be much obliged to you for the dates and other partic- ulars you kindly offer to furnish. I hope that auto- biography which you are so fortunate as to possess is of such a character that it may be printed, and that you will give it along with a little memoir from your own pen. It will be quite in your way, and I would rather you should do it than any one else. . . . By the way, I may as well mention that Dr. Dar- lington told me that certain letters, ete., of Baldwin’s, which he could not print, as they were severe on Nut- tall, should come into my possession after his own death. You will probably know if any bundle of papers is left, directed to my charge. TO CHARLES DARWIN. CamBRIDGE, March 22, 1863. My pear Darwin, — Argyle’s article on the Su- pernatural, to which you called my attention a long while ago, I never happened to see till to-day, when I have read it through. It is quite clever, not deep, 502. LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1863, but clear, and I think useful. I see no occasion for finding fault with him, except in his attempts now and then to direct a little odium against you, which is unhandsome, for his main points are those I hammered out in the “ Atlantic,” ete. ; indeed I see signs of his having read the same. But it is hardly fair of him, after expressing his complete conviction that where the operation of natural causes can be clearly traced, the implication of design, upon its appropriate evi- dence, is not thereby rendered less certain or less convincing, to go on to speak of derivation-doctrine in a way that implies the contrary. Of course we believers in real design make the most of your “frank” and natural terms, “ contri- vance, purpose,” etc., and pooh-pooh your endeavors to resolve such contrivances into necessary results of certain physical processes, and make fun of the race between long noses and long nectaries ! March 23. Dr. Wyman,! who is a sharp fellow, tells me that, on the authority of the historian Prescott, the Incas of Peru, for no one knows how long, married their sisters, to keep the perfect purity of the blood. Query: How did this strong case of close-breeding operate? Did they run out thereby? Wyman thinks there is no evidence of it. If it is true, and the Incas stood it for a long course of generations, you must look to it, for it will bear hard against your theory of the necessity of crossing. If they run out, you will have a good case. 1 Dr. Jeffries Wyman. a Reem er eT. 52.) TO CHARLES DARWIN. 503 . April 11. You see that, at length, the thing is nearly done, and, to use the expression here, rebeldom is “ gone up.” You have long seen, I suppose, that I was right in saying there was but one possible end to the war ; also that the continuance for a time or abolition of slay- ery depended simply on the rebels, — that if they obsti- nately and persistently resisted, slavery was thereby doomed. It has been a long, weary, and trying work. But the country has had the needed patience and nerve, and the thing is done, once for all, at great cost, but to immense and enduring advantage. You are the only Britisher I ever write to on this subject, and, in fact, for whose opinions about our country I care at all. So I hasten to rejoice with you over the beginning of the end. April 20. You asked me to tell you, when I had read it, what I thought of Sir Charles Lyell’s book.! I have only to-day finished the perusal of the copy he kindly sent me, that is, all but half of the matter on glacial riod, which I reserve till I can read it more attentively. Throughout it is a very interesting and to me a very satisfactory book. It is three books: 1. A capital résumé and examination of what we knew about the evidence of antiquity of man; no evidence we had not read of before, but very clearly presented, of course. 2. A treatise on the glacial period. Out of this I have much to learn, and must read it all again care- fully ; of a part I have not yet cut the leaves. 1 The Antiquity of Man. 504. LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1863, 3. On transmutation matters. That part of the book I can judge somewhat of, and I declare it first- rate. It is just about what I expected, and is charac- teristic of the man. I think that you, and Hooker, are unreasonable in complaining of Lyell that he does not come out “ flat-footed,” as we say, as an ad- vocate of natural-selection transmutation. For, 1st, it is evident that though inclined strongly towards it he is by no means satisfied that natural selection will do all the work you put upon it. 2d, he very plainly implies nearly all you would have him say. And, 3d, he serves your cause (supposing it to be well-founded) quite as effectually, perhaps, by his guarded position, by his keeping the position of a judge rather than of an advocate, and by considering still the case as not yet ripe for a decision. Very skillfully, too, has he presented the case of transmutation so as to commend it, as much as pos- sible, to us orthodox people. (Huxley, I suppose, whose two books I have not seen, would put it in a way to frighten us off.) Indeed, I think he has shown remarkable judgment and taste, and will have much success in disarming prejudice. And this is all you could ask. The chapter on language makes the points I sup- posed would be made, or some of them, but only dips in, leaving more to be said. But this is rather tick- lish ground, for, if we are not careful here, you would get the better of us in this field quoad design. f I had got the book three or four weeks earlier I should have worked in some notice of the last chapter into my review of De Candolle, ete., i Species, in the May number of “ Silliman’s Journa Now please do not think of being = this spring, Se TAPS att Sas ap ta eS ad nee eS KT. 52.] TO CHARLES DARWIN. 505 and passing all your valuable time, wasting it, at a water-cure. I have really, as you see, nothing special to write of this week, and no time to read what I have hur- riedly penned. May 26. Your letter on heterogeny is keen and good ; Owen’s rejoinder ingenious. But his dissent from your well-put claims of natural selection to attention and regard is good for nothing except on the ad- mission of the view that species are somehow derived genealogically ; and this I judge, from various 0 Owen’s statements, that he really in his heart believes to be the case, and was (as I long ago intimated my suspicions) hunting about for some system of deri- vation, when your book came down upon him like a thunderclap. Wyman, here, is greatly pleased with Huxley’s book on man’s place in nature. I have not even seen it. Did you ever notice how prettily Iris is arranged for cross-fertilizing by bees, ete. ? Your Linum paper has long been here. But I have actually not had time to read it. I might have glanced at it. But I find it best to read only when I can do so with some attention. Phyllotaxis: I have no notion in the-world why the angular divergences should be of that series of num- bers and not of others. Opposite leaves give (decus- sating) the angles. My puzzle has been to account for this system in cycles in leaves running into the system of decussating whorls in flowers (usually, almost universally). You will see the question by comparing in my “ Botanical Text-Book” (not “ Les- 506 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. (1863, sons ’’), pp. 236, 237, with chapter v., section 1; and you see I have drawn an illustration from it apropos to Falconer’s remark. But explaining the obscure by the obscure does not amount to much. As to national affairs, how quarrelsome you Eng- lish are. Here are we, cool and quietly occupied with our little affairs, never dreaming of harm from you, and your people are trying their prettiest to pick a quarrel with us, because we do what Historicus says the English have always done and will do again when the time comes, having Lord Stowell to back them! Tell me, who is Historicus in the “Times”? An able and most influential person evidently. The government of England is now showing sense. Do not wonder that some wild talk is given to the air in this rough country, after what you have heard in the House of Commons, and read in the “ Times,” ete. Am afraid we shall not like each other for a good while — the nations. But all shows I was right. We must carry out our little job, and hold the United States complete and develop material strength at any cost, or we could not live without eating more dirt than we like. Boasting nonsense is pretty well knocked out of us by severe discipline and sad reverses, but the deter- mination is stronger than ever. Time up and paper full. Forgive my maundering, and believe me to be, Ever your affectionate, A. Gray. June, [1863]. I am kept distractingly busy, so look for nothing of any use from me yet awhile. Your Ohio case of law against marrying of cousins, eT. 52.) TO CHARLES DARWIN. 50T I put to my neighbor, Professor Parsons, who had it looked up. He tells me there is no such law at all on the Ohio statute books, nor is there a trace of any law on the subject to be found in the laws of any State in the United States. He doubts if there can really be any statistics which tell on the point, because, first, the marriage of first cousins is a rare thing in this country ; second, the United States decennial censuses do not afford any information on the matter; third, nor any of the [state] censuses that he knows of. Pray, don’t run mad over Phyllotaxis! I can’t save you, I am sure. George’s “ Converging Sines ” is the same, perhaps, as what Bravais was after. His memoir may help you (see “ Botanical Text-Book,” p. 141, par. 248); or, if you want something thoroughly mathematical, consult Neumann, of Berlin, in some paper, which I have no reference to. . T am sorry you do not give a better account of your- self. Be careful and do not work too hard. July 7. My last from you is May 31 Thad arranged to reprint most of Bates on Mimetic Analogy in “Silliman’s Journal,” but my long re- view of A. de Candolle crowded it out. Ithen thought of a brief abstract, but have had no time to prepare it. I wrote remarks and arranged long extracts of your Linum paper, and insisted on it for the July number of * Silliman’s Journal.” But it, too, was laid over, not for anything I had, for I have little in the J uly number. I like and agree to your remark that, in Bates’s Geographical Varieties, ete., we get about as near to mong a species made as we are ever likely to get; 508 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1863, and so believing, I think your gradual way more likely than Heer’s jumps. Apropos to Heer, you ask me if it is not impossible to imagine so many and nice coadaptations as we see in orchids being formed all by a chance blow. I reply, Yes, perfectly impossible to imagine (and much the same by any number of chance blows). So I turn the question back upon you. Is not the fact that the coadaptations are so nice next to a demonstration against their having been formed by chance blows at all, one or many ? Here lies, I suppose, the difference between us. When you bring me up to this point, I feel the cold ehill. I have been doing nothing but attend to my daily work, and had got so fagged that I really thought I was about to have softening of the brain, or some other breakdown. But a week of respite, caused by the death of an aged relative of my wife’s, —a dear old soul, — taking us away from here perforce, has set me up very disaly, and now after a week more comes my vacation, and we are off into the quiet country for three weeks. A little legacy of about £2,000 to my wife comes in opportunely to relieve us of anxiety for the future. We have no children (which I regret only that I have no son to send to the war), and this with a little in- come, rather precarious, of about £200 a year would support us in our very simple way, if I were to throw up my place here. But I cannot do that yet... . Look at Impatiens flowers; see if the most fertile “precociously fertilized” ones ever get crossed ! I have asked in three directions for seeds of the Specularia perfoliata. Inclosed are depauperate specimens. A at ET. 52.] TO CHARLES DARWIN. 509 It is pretty to see honey-bees cross-fertilize Lo- cust (Robinia), much as you say of broom. One of my students has been noticing the way bees act on Kalmia. Now for my best thing for to-day. An orchid which I missed last year, Platanthera flava, I knew would be curious, for I remembered a strong protuberance on base of labellum, on the me- dian line. I have not time left to describe it now, hav- ing been sadly interrupted, but it is pretty, — equal to anything you have yet seen in British orchids. The process turns proboscis of insect either to right or left, where it will slip into an imperfect ring (as seen from above) or deep groove (as seen from before), in which lies the disk, not flat but coiled up, ready to catch pro- boscis. It is like the eye of a needle to receive the thread. Perhaps I will send you, or print, a sketch! of the thin ng. I am waiting for Gymnadenia tridentata to come on But the post hour has come. July 21. Your latest is of the 26th ult. You need not worry! It never wearies nor bores me to write to you, in the off-hand way I do. I enjoy our corre- spondence too much to consent to curtail or interrupt it. I learn from you, here in this remote part of the world, a thousand things which I should not other- wise know at all. And you stimulate my mind far more than any one else, except, perhaps, Hooker. So please do not make a fuss, but let me go on in my own 1 There was a rough sketch of the disk, ete., in the margin. 510 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1863, fashion, and send me your fresh and stimulating let- ters, whenever you are in the mood of it. am now in my vacation, and already, having idled and dawdled a week or two, Iam as well and eng as possible, and in the best of spirits. We should leave home this week for three weeks’ run in the country, but the sickness of my wife’s nephew, Lieutenant Jackson of Massachusetts Cavalry, will keep us awhile, as, though not alarming, it might take a bad turn, and so I may not be in the country for a week or two yet. We shall see. . . I have ene and fresh Drosera rotundifolia, and it will now turn in its bristles and stick the viscid gland fast to a fly, binding him fast on all sides with liliputian cords. But it is awfully slow about it, — say three or four hours, and the next day the leaf sometimes becomes involute and folds over or curves around the insect; but what good? If the fly is not stuck fast in alighting, no movement takes place to hold him till he has got away if he ever could. How- ever, it is an indication of what is so effectually done in Dionza,. Rotary movement of end of tendril-bearing stems is common, is it not, and well-known ? Any notes you will give me to print in “ Silliman’s Journal,” I shall always delight in. I have been reading Owen’s Aye-aye paper. Well, this is rich and cool! Did I not tell you in the “ At- lantic,” long ago, that Owen had a transmutation theory of his-own! It is your Hamlet, with the part of Hamlet left out! But as you say now, you don’t so much insist on natural selection, if you can only have derivation of species. And Owen goes in for derivation on the largest scale. You may as well lovingly embrace! Oh, it is rare fun! ... ta Seale SAD NCAT TA NN AS NA ne, SEL Rr en Ale = Sei eee aw une Eras ET. 52.) TO CHARLES DARWIN. 511 I have been so far disappointed in getting no Gym- nadenia tridentata. But I still hope for it. I must have it, indeed. Boott’s address is good, chiefly very good. But he speaks of Wyman’s paper without having duly con- sidered it. Wyman’s experiments are better than Pasteur’s, and the results opposite ! P.S.— Papers just in, or rather telegrams, that you in London were daily awaiting and expecting the capture of Washington, ete., and speculating as to whether Jeff Davis’s envoys from Washington might not be received at London as a fait accompli. A good deal of little-concealed joy, ete. Oh, foolish people! When will you see that there is only one end to all this, and that the North never dreams of any other, — the complete putting down of the rebellion. And since 1863 began, it was clear that it would be attended with the annihilation of slavery. Time was when we should have highly valued Eng- lish appreciation of the right cause. We have long ceased to care or think about it. We only wish you had the city of New York. But the sympathizers with secession and riot there have done their worst, and lost their game. The city of New York is the only part of our country which I am ashamed of; and the trouble there is that it is not American. Enough ; good-bye. A. G. September 1. Your fine, long letter of August 4th reached me up in the country, in my native region, in the centre of the State of New York, rusticating and enjoying ourselves mightily. We were among the people of a thriving region ; a well-to-do set; no poverty near us 512 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1863, for miles and miles, i. e., no hardship, except any that a drunken laborer might bring on his family; and I longed to take you out with us in our drives, that you might see a happy and comfortable country, more and more so every year, and perhaps a larger ratio of the population refined to a reasonable degree in feeling and life than I know of in any other part of the world. I will consider about fantastic variation of pigeons. I see afar trouble enough ahead quoad design in na- ture, but have managed to keep off the chilliness by giving the knotty questions a rather wide berth. If I rather avoid, I cannot ignore the difficulties ahead. But if I adopt your view bodily, can you promise me any less difficulties ? If your Lythrum paper shall be at all equal in in- terest to that on Linun, it will be a gem. As to tendrils, what are Hooker and Oliver (the latter a professor, too) about, and where have they lived not to know anything of them? Everybody must have seen, in Cucurbitaceze and Passiflora, ten- drils reaching out straight for a certain time, and then, if they reach — coiling up from the end. Also the sweeping of stem P.S. [To the above ?] “Thies numbers of Boston newspapers recently sent you, two by this mail (in which my good beau-pére is again “ spiking the Eng- lish”), please to forward to Reuben Harvey, Esq., Limerick, Ireland. You are quite out in supposing that hatred of Eng- land is increasing, or that there is the least desire to meddle with you, except in self-defense. My own feelings were very sensitive at first, because I expected better things, and I then deferred much to British opinion. I now do neither, and nothing eal en mr. 53.) TO CHARLES DARWIN. 513 strikes me more than the smallness of mind and largeness of gullibility of the British people, as far as I can judge from their press (weeklies, quarterlies, and “ Times”). But I do not suppose you will fight us because you dislike us; and so conversely. I suppose I do not see the papers which so abuse England, though I read influential and respectable papers ; but from what I do see, I think we receive far more abuse and misrepresentation and unfair usage than we give. As to the course of the war and policy of our coun- try as to slavery, some day when you turn back to some early letter of mine you will see that I was a fairly good prophet; that the South might have de- layed the abolition of slavery by giving up early in the conflict, but that every month of continued resist- ance hastened and insured the downfall of slavery. That is now doomed, and sure near to rapid death ; quick in some places, slower in others, but sure. Ill-usage of negroes — who make such good sol- diers — will soon be unheard of, except with Irish. It will take some generations of American life to breed out the barbarian they bring to the country. November 23. The next best thing, of late, is the exposé of Lind- say and George Saunders (the Confederates) by His- toricus. I trust Historicus’ previous letters, in which he Shows (about the same time my father-in-law’s articles on the subject reached England) that it is the duty of a country to see that armed or war vessels are not fitted out, quite irrespective of all municipal law, have produced their proper effect. Something has pro- duced a great effect, and a great change in the idea 514 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1863, of what it was incumbent on the government to do ; and nothing can be more satisfactory than the views now taken; and the effect here is excellent. For we are sure that when the right notions once get a lodg- ment, as they have, England will faithfully carry them through. Lawyers whom I knew here were confident how the law would ultimately be laid down by your courts ; but we greatly feared it would be done only after a few more such vessels had got to sea. All will go well now. The newspaper I occasionally send you is a fair specimen of the influential part of the press here. Such articles as the “Times” likes to cite have far less effect here than you suppose in the determination of events. TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. CAMBRIDGE, December 11, 1863. My pear ENGELMANN, — Our good old friend Von Martius writes me that on the 30th March next, he will reach his fiftieth anniversary of his doctorate. I dare say his friends will commemorate it in Germany. It occurs to me that it would be a good idea for some of us, his friends and correspondents, to compliment him upon the occasion. Suppose you draw up in Ger- man a letter of congratulation, etc., to be signed by yourself, Torrey, Sullivant, ete., and forward about the proper time. Send me, with your German circu- lar letter to Martius, a translation in English... . Yes, I will let you work at botany when I guard you. Your botanical work is far better than your politics. But you must swear the President’s oath, Proclamation and all !! 1 Dr. Gray enlisted and drilled with a company raised for service in husetts, | | | a Nene tn cae 7. 53.] TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. 515 Martius is not a very remarkable botanist, but good ; is a genial, philosophical soul (full of Plato, ete.), a good explorer, has worked up the Palms, ete., well, and is a wonderful man for the amount he knows on a vast number of different subjects, — phi- lology, antiquities, philosophy, et id genus omne. May 3, [1864]. . . . Spring is opening here, but late. From this to July 10, I am engaged in college every day in the week. Also am watching the herbarium building go up, the brick walls of which, if good weather, may be all up this week, and the roof put on next week. Your circular letter to good Martius was very good, especially in its original German. Thanks. . . Never mind if “ Sagittaria graminea, Michaux,” is applicable to only one “form. You had best keep the old name, the more so as that you propose, S. sim- plicifolia, is “not always correct.” We can’t let you change a name because you can improve it. Too many can and would play at that game, and less dis- creetly than you would, and then cite your example ! If Fendler gets tired of bush-clearing, and will come to me this fall, I will give him $500 a year as curator, lodgings, two rooms in gardener’s house, which I have reserved ; and let him have say three days in the week for himself, if he wants them. The people are determined to support and reélect their excellent President Lincoln (what a noble letter that last of his), whether Frémont and the like make a coalition with copperheads or not. It is all the same tous. Lincoln will walk the course. God bless him! Wright is coming home for a few months this sum- mer, 516 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1863, TO CHARLES WRIGHT. CAMBRIDGE, September 18, 1863. What Don José affirms about coast and mountain vegetation being much the same is curious, unlikely, yet you seem to find it so. That bit of coast with all microphyllous and spiny vegetation is also curious. I am glad you like him for being an abolitionist. Though not very much of an abolitionist myself, at the start, I hope I can fall in with, and welcome, the ways of Providence, when Providence takes the mat- ter in hand, and say Amen... . Well, you are doing well in botanizing, and should finish up Cuban botany while you are at it. And on your return, you and Grisebach should join teams, and do up Cuban botany in a full memoir. You are right to stay till next spring. You are happy in Cuba; you would not be so here. Things in the United States do not go to suit you atall. “Things is working,” and in the right way, —but the end must be the total suppression of the rebellion, — the exile or punishment of rebel leaders, the return of the masses to their duty, and they will put things straight. Just what is now going on in Tennessee will go on elsewhere, I suppose. I know only one man in Cam- bridge that you could talk secesh to. We can corre- spond very well, and keep cool. But if we were to- gether, during the war, we should get into a row at once. It could not be otherwise. When the Union is restored (which it is to be, of course, When the rebellion is put down) those who do not love us well enough to resume their duties and privileges have only to take themselves off to some country they like better. The United States of Amer- ica belongs to loyal Americans. After the war the cea scteeidaanaiindnedah iad decree XT. 53.) TO CHARLES WRIGHT. 517 country will prosper wonderfully. And the South will get to be something. December 1. Things move on. “The mills of the Gods grind slow, but they grind exceeding fine.” Wait in Cuba a year longer, and you may return to a country in which slavery, having tried to get more, has lost all, and as a system is defunct, to the lasting benefit of all parties. You might now revisit your old Texan haunts, under General Banks’s protection. The November elections show a united North. Peace democracy has made its issue, and is dead. The reélection of Lincoln by acclamation seems prob- able, supported by moderate men of all sorts, the ex- tremes of the opposing parties alone going against him. Merry Christmas to you. January 21, 1864. By the steamer of Saturday, which takes this, a good young fellow, Mr. Kennedy, a member of our Senior class, goes to Cuba, to look after business of his father, and, when he can, to botanize, only four or five weeks, that is, in vacation. He is very fond of botany, and bids fair to be a botanist some day, if he does not take to money-making instead. . . . This war, we think, will be pretty much over next summer; and then, back in the Union, with slavery pretty much nowhere, by the hearty wish of a ma- jority of the people, we may expect a career of pros- perity and real advance of the South, such as it has never known. At least we hope so. 518 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1863, TO R. W. CHURCH. CampBripGE, December 25, 1863. For ourselves, your letter found us here just on the eve of our month’s holiday, a trip to Lake George, and thence to my natal region, in the most beautiful (and the most English-looking) part of the State of New York. . . . My wife was well enough to do her small part in a great fair held in Boston for the United States Sanitary Commission (which has kept the ladies very busy for the last six months), which has just closed, having brought the net proceeds of about $125,000 (it turns out $140,000) for the relief of suffering. As to our national affairs, I should like now and then to send you such comments or articles as seem to me to throw most light upon our condition. There is little I could say in a letter. I said very early to English friends that if the rebellion were short it might leave things much as they were before (no de- sirable state), but if long and obstinate, it would cut the knot we were unable to untie and completely de- stroy the slave system. You see now it is coming to pass, by rather slow but sure steps, and a great bless- ing it is to be to the South. To the North the war, with all its sad evils, has been a great good, morally and politically. The end is in the hands of Provi- dence, and we humbly wait for it; but there is very little diversity of opinion here as to what, essentially, the end is to be, that is, the complete territorial rein- statement of the Union, and the abolition of slavery. Very sanguine, you think, in England. We must wait and see, and on our part hope and labor. Now for a little personal matter. I have long been anxious for the safety and final destination of my . : 2S RT err &T. 53.] TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 519 herbarium and other botanical collections, which in my house (besides that, there is not room for them) are too liable to destruction from fire. I had offered them, with my botanical library, to our university, if they would build in the Botanic Garden a fireproof building to hold them, and raise a small fund for their support. Recently and quite unexpectedly, a banker in Boston, almost unknown to me personally, has offered in any case to construct the building, and a few friends are taking steps, with good prospects, to raise by gifts a fund of $10,000 for the support of the establishment. When done, I shall feel that my col- lections, which are most important for North Ameri- can botany, are secure for the use of future botanists. To secure this I gladly divest myself of the ownership of collections which have absorbed most of my small Spare means for the last thirty years, and which are valued at $20,000 or more... . In the council of our American Academy (of which since May last I have been president) we have nom- inated Dean Milman to the foreign honorary mem- bership vacated by the death of Whately, and Max Miiller to that vacated by Grimm. The election has not yet taken place. Mrs. Gray, with kind regards, joins me in best wishes for the new year to you and yours. Very sincerely yours, Asa Gray. TO A. DE CANDOLLE. CamBRIDGE, December 22, 1863. My pear De Canpoiie, —I thank you cordially for your letter of the 13th November, and for the copy of Thury’s interesting and curious paper. This I had not seen, neither Pictet’s notice. I find it very 520 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. (1863, interesting, but I do not see how he got a legitimate deduction from the facts given by Knight in the veg- etable kingdom to his principle in the animal king- m. However, that is of small moment if the prin- ciple holds. The subject is one which will naturally attract much attention, and which, as you remark, has philosophical bearings. I mean to bring it up, next week, for discussion at our private (social) scientific club in Cambridge. I thank you also for the good spirit in which you take, as I meant them, my criticisms upon your article on Species, etc. There is no progress to be m upon such interesting subjects without free criticism, because without it we cannot perfectly clear up our own views nor impart them perfectly to others. And especially, since I have so often to criticise the views or writings of persons for whom I have no particular regard, it is pleasant, if only for the sake of impartial- ity, to criticise those for whom you have the greatest regard and respect. So I particularly like it when I can criticise such a near friend as J. D. Hooker or Bentham, and I believe they like it, too, at least Hooker, who is himself a very free critic. Of course, I know very well that you will be likely to turn all the points I made. The question upon which of the two foundations the idea of species rests, I well know is not to be settled off-hand by any bit of argument. Pray take up the cudgels against me whenever an occasion offers. As to theoretical views, you and I receive and use them as means, not as ends, and expect to change many of them from time to time. Such especially as relate to origins and causes are the questions which we ask, rather than answers that we receive ; and we es ore LS ee zr, 53.] TO JAMES D. DANA. 521 put our questions variously according to the leadings of the case at the time. But this is all commonplace and trite. It is curious to see that Owen, in his Aye-aye paper, has come to adopt Heer’s ! views essentially, of course without the slightest allusion to Heer. Our civil war goes on slowly, but very surely, to- ward the destruction of negro slavery; and with all its great cost, we may hope for future benefit in pro- portion. By the time we have nearly ended our war, it may be that Europe will have its turn again. I hope not. A. Gray. TO JAMES D. DANA. CamerincE, January 20, [1864]. My pear Dana, — Perhaps you may not know, and I hope you may be as pleased as I was to know, that your article of last summer on Geological Periods is reprinted in full in the “ Reader” (of London), with an appreciative prefix. Cephalization goes on bravely in your very taking article which you have just sent me. I am much struck with it. Tn one thing you zodlogists miss it, I think, — in following French customs in dropping the Latin, the vernacular of science, in names. I wish you would write Aphaniptera, etc., which is just as much Eng- lish after all as Aphanipters, and good for all lan- ages, Have Englishified contractions for all such names if you will; it is well. But in proposing and formally 1 Oswald Heer, 1809-1883; born in ere St. Gall, Switzerland ; professor of botany at Zurich. ‘‘ The m tinguished paleonto- logical botanist of our time ” [A. G.]. 522 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. (1864, writing of such divisions, etc., pray use the scientific orm. The other course has greatly jargonified zodlogy. In botany we have always been more dignified. Moreover I detest “larve,” though Kirby tried to in- troduce the word. “ Larva” has got to be as English as “ phenomenon.” But I dare say most would agree with you. I like the ring of most of the new technical terms you have coined. .. . Ever yours, » Gray. TO CHARLES DARWIN. February 16, 1864. My pear Darwin, — Here we are past midwinter, and not being stimulated as of old by your exciting letters, I have not written you a line since Christmas. Not that I have had anything in particular to tell you. I write now to say how very sorry I am that the word or two I get about you from Hooker gives me the idea that you are having an uncomfortable and suffer- ing time, as well as entirely broken off from scientific work. I feel very sorry about it, and do long for better news of you. . . I have lately peinied a couple of monographs, one pretty big one, of American Astragali. I do not know that they contain anything you would care to see. Yet I think I shall send you a copy presently, through Hooker. I feel much the loss of dear old Boott, so good, so true a friend, and he was always writing me little notes telling me of all that was going on. The sentiment of our country, you must see, at least I assure you, has settled, as I knew it would if hea-Rankaline Lak acceenlaliciee a i a i ii &T. 53.) TO R. W. CHURCH. 523 the rebellion was obstinate enough, into a determina- tion to do away with slavery. Homely, honest, un- gainly Lincoln is the representative man of the coun- A Boston gentleman, at cost of $11,000 or more, is to build a fireproof house for my herbarium, which I give to the university, with my botanical library. A fund of $12,000 is raising to support it, which will relieve me of the expenditure of about $500a year. But I shall have double care and bother all the coming spring and summer. Dr. Seudder has gone to Cuba, to attend an in- valid, and wishes to examine orchid fertilization, and asks me what in particular he should look at. Pray get well, dear Darwin, and believe me to be ever, Yours cordially, Asa Gray. TO R. W. CHURCH. CampBripcE, April 4, 1864. My pear Mr. Cuurcu,— If you have long ago written your American correspondent off your books, as being a right shabby fellow, he could not com- plain. Here is your agreeable letter of January 19th, a most prompt and more than kind response to mine of Christmas, still unacknowledged by me! The fact simply is that I have been delaying week by week in the hope of being able to announce to you that the subscription for the support of our botan- ical establishment was filled up. I am sorry to say that this cannot yet be said. The matter has been privately conducted, that is, nothing said about it im the public prints; but the two gentlemen who took the matter in hand have quietly circulated the paper 524 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1864, among their well-to-do acquaintances in Boston, not beginning till late in January, under the idea that the fair for the Sanitary Commission had perhaps ex- hausted their friends’ purses. Since then, far greater and more pressing demands have been made upon the benevolent and the public-spirited, for a variety of good objects; and our affair has gone slowly in consequence. I have not heard for a week respecting it, but a week ago the sum subscribed was a little less than seven thousand dollars, the greater part in sums of $500 each. The $10,000 is obviously secure, for sub- scribers of $100 each, yet to be appealed to, may be relied on for a good part of the lacking sum. But it begins to be clearly seen that $12,000 are needed for the capital of the fund, and this, at the present rate, it will take some time to secure. Your own offer of a small subscription, I can truly say, not only gratified me in the highest degree, as an expression of an interest in our affair which I had no reason to expect, but has already been of use, — has really been as good for us as any contribution you ought to make. For I took the liberty to read that portion of your letter to three or four friends, and their interest in the matter was sensibly quickened and exalted by this evidence of the lively interest in the matter taken by a country parson, far away in England! So pray consider that you have already helped us on, and we are truly grateful to you for your generous proffer. There is, indeed, a strong temptation to accept your kind offer in the fact that, in the present state of exchanges, owing to our paper currency not on a specie basis (one of the sad conse- quences of our civil war), every pound sterling in a ET. 53.] TO R. W. CHURCH. 525 England, in normal times worth only from $4.90 to $5.00, is worth nearly or quite $8.00, so that a con- tribution of £5 sterling really now counts here for about forty dollars!! So you see how hard it is for me to discourage your kind intentions. But I really feel that the sum which I specified, as the condition of my own gift to our university, is really quite sure, though slower in coming than we had hoped. As to the building for the herbarium, I have only to state it goes on famously. It is considerably enlarged in plan from what was at first contemplated, and a favorable early spring has allowed of more pro- gress than could have been expected at this season. The generous donor of the building not only adopted at once the larger plans as soon as suggested, but himself proposed improvements and additions. The building, the foundations of which are already laid, in the most substantial manner, is 382 by 57 feet, and is connected with my private study in the house I reside in by a neat conservatory 18 feet long, which takes the place of the simple wooden corridor at first intended. The whole will cost Mr. Thayer, the donor, by the contracts, more than $11,000, and is likely, by extras, to reach the round sum of $12,- 000. And all will be done before the summer is over, we trust. See how the expression of your interest to me has led me on, to the neglect of everything else I want to write about. . . . I wish to say something about the troubles in your Old World, which, with all its age and wisdom, falls into “ difficulties ” hardly less grave than ours. I hope poor brave Denmark will not be crushed out of existence. There are English ques- tions which we regard with much attention, ecclesias- 526 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1864, tical and social questions, on which I would fain know what you think. But I cannot write longer now. Only as to our war, I beg you to believe that we (the earnest thoughtful people and most around us, according to their measure) have acted and are act- ing from the highest sense of duty, — duty to our be- loved country and to humanity ; and we keep the full conviction that great and permanent good is to result. Much of the good we see already, and more comes near to realization every day. So we work and trust, and suffer cheerfully. We only wish our views and motives were better appreciated in general in the country and by the people whose good opinion we most value. But even the lack of that appreciation, which is far from universal, is likely to do us good. I am always sure of your thoughtful good wishes for us. But I must break off. Ever yours most sincerely, Asa Gray. TO A. DE CANDOLLE. Campriper, May 30, 1864. My pEAR De CanDoL_E, —I have let your very kind letter of 28th January lie on my desk a long time, always expecting to write soon, but, having been ex- tremely busy with various administrative matters and college work since it reached me, the convenient moment for writing to you has not arrived till now. I inclose a note to my young friend and late col- league, Professor Eliot, which I beg you to send to the poste restante on arrival. I learn from his friends here that he may be expected to be in Geneva about the time this reaches you. In my note I ask him to call upon you, as a friend of mine. He will of course be unwilling to make any yn tbe : xr, 53.] TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 527 demands upon your time or attention. But I should like him to see you, and perhaps he might through you pay his respects to the savans in his line, notably to De la Rive. Having wife, ete., with him, and little time, his visit will be transient. Eliot is a chemist and physicist, a man of much promise, we think, and a most gentlemanly man. He is a very trusty friend of mine. He has passed the autumn and winter in Paris, studying hard, and will soon return here, bringing the latest news of you. He and his lady companions are just such people as we should like you to know America by. I should say to you, moreover, that I gave to an- other colleague of mine, Professor Cooke, a note to you. He is a chemist and mineralogist, is full of re- search and zeal, a most estimable man. You know, perhaps, that I have made over (or am to make over) all my herbarium and library to our university, in consideration of a fireproof building made to receive them, and a fund, of moderate extent, raised for the permanent support. . . . During the summer or early autumn, my collections will be trans- ferred to this their permanent home, to my great relief. It is probable that I shall continue to spend upon these collections all my available means, and I hope they will be of use in the future, as well as safe, which they are not in my wooden house. My own donation is reckoned in money value at about $20,000. Charles Wright is expected home from Cuba soon, when there will be a new and interesting distribu- tion of his phenogamous plants. We trust that our civil war is in its last year, that is, if we are victorious, as we hope to be. In that case your American stocks will be all right again. 528 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1865, Nearly all the little I possess is cheerfully put into United States government stocks, where I am well content it should be. Small countries, which you prefer, would do very well if all were small, but the few large, like England and France, will domineer unpleasantly over the smaller. Just look now at poor Denmark, which has the misfortune to be small, and so is made to suffer! All Seandinavia had best combine, and build up a strong nation. Natural selection is hard upon the weak! However it may be in Europe, you must ex- cuse us for endeavoring to prevent, while we may, even at great cost, the establishment of a European system on this side of the Atlantic; so we must not fail to put down the Confederacy. We shall, after that, in a quiet way, make the French emperor very uncomfortable in Mexico; but we hope that country may yet be a strong power, but not a French power. Enough of politics! And believe me to be, with affectionate regard, Ever yours, Asa GRay. CAMBRIDGE, January 30, 1865. My pear De CanpoLie: . . . This very day, I have received your envoi by post of the neat little article on leaves of Fagus, which I had seen in Eng- lish dress, and the copy of Heer’s address. Many thanks to you. I have received also, and thank you much for it, the ‘‘ Prodromus,” XIV., I. I have this evening read over Heer’s address. It is, as you say, capital. It interests me in its proof of the antiquity of the present flora; and I admit that he very neatly puts the case between his view of the production of our species out of the older ones, and that of Darwin. Here it still rests: Darwin has the great advantage of GRAY IN HIS STUDY TY, ET. 54.] TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 529 being able to assign a vera causa. Heer has the dis- advantage of having no known cause to assign; but he shows that things do not appear to have proceeded as Darwin’s theory requires. It does seem as if there were times of peculiar change as well as of great stability. But were this time of change and that of stability simultaneous for the species of a flora? And does Heer allow enough for the species which now occur under many forms, — show great polymorphism. I continually meet with these in fh North American flora ; in which the dying out of some forms, and their roplagastl by others, which may well take place in time, would, in effect, just give a change like that to be accounted for. But I cannot say that these varie- ties come in insensibly, very likely not. Now, to speak of myself. My summer was much frittered away; the superintending of the new build- ing for my herbarium just preventing any serious atu The autumn was devoted to the removal and rearrangement of plants and books, and to assisting Charles Wright in the collation and distribution into sets of his collections in Cuba for the last three years past ; very full and interesting collections, and requir- ing much care and labor, on account of this distribu- tion being a continuation of former distributions. I laid out into the sets every specimen with my own hands, Mr. Wright adding the tickets and numbers. It was an immense labor, and was finished only at the close of the last day of the year... . I mean to prepare for “ Silliman’s Journal” a brief and simple notice of the edifice for my herbarium, so I will not speak further of it here ; further than to say that I am well satisfied, only I sadly need a cura- tor! 580 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1865, And now, I turn to your letter of September 29, and ask your pardon for having so long neglected it. Your letters, your reflections upon social and political, as well as upon scientific questions, are always very interesting and instructive to me. I regret that I can render so little return in kind. s to our national troubles, ie — brightens that we shall end the rebellion and slavery holo long. God grant it. Believe me to be, as ever, my dear De Candolle, very faithfully yours, TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. February 14, 1865. . Wright is here, distributing and finishing up Sie North Pacific Expedition Collection; . . . will re- turn to Cuba in a month or two, to take a year or two more there, revisit some old parts and explore some new; then I urge Hayti, but Wright seems rather loth. Rothrock — from northwestern Pennsylvania — is a bright lively pupil of mine for last three or four years, when not serving his country in the army, where he has done good service as private in infantry, and as captain in Pennsylvania cavalry, ete. He had to leave his thesis partly unfinished. But the real credit of all belongs to him. His father is M. D., and he is now studying medicine, attending lockiess at Philadelphia. But botany is in him, and will prob- ably come out. . There, I aleve ie: is about all. J. A. Lowell has made a nice present of costly botanical books, of which more anon. i ; es x7. 54.) TO W. J. HOOKER. 531 [March 18.] . Rothrock is going with Kinnicut this week, to Matiligecsdean America, Norton’s Sound, ete., to ex- plore on telegraph route close along the Arctic Circle. Any pines there you want? .. . March 29. . . » No, Mrs. Gray did not go to inauguration ball. But she has had a good time. Her brother, the gen- eral, took her from Fortress Monroe, where she went, up to the front and close to rebel lines; where she had the honor of having a rebel shell thrown at her ! I expect her home again to-morrow. No, I don’t get a curator, and I want one sadly. Yet it is as well Fendler did not come, as it might have been difficult for me to pay him. He, however, is just the man I want here, to take charge of her- barium and garden. . . . TO W. J. HOOKER. CamBRrinGE, April 24, 1865. Mr. Wright is about to return to Cuba, to have one year more of exploration there, and especially to visit Turquino, the highest mountain of the island, and some other parts which are still promising. He will now be able —as he is always most ready —to attend to the gathering of seeds of palms, or other seeds, or things you may want at Kew. He has now some good and kind friends in the country, and deserves them, for he is one of the most hearty, single-minded, and disinterested persons I ever knew, as well as an admirable collector; but being rather rough in exterior, he does not like to come into con- tact with official people, unless properly accredited. But if armed with official instructions to British con- 5382 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1865, suls, etc., and so having the means of very promptly turning over, without bother or uncertainty, whatever he may collect for you, I have no doubt you may turn him to excellent account. Perhaps, however, he will not long remain in Cuba; for there is a prospect of getting him attached (nominally, without any emolu- ment) to the United States consulate-general at Hayti, so that he may explore the botany of that island, as he has done that of Cuba. But I doubt if he will keep in the field many years more, or do such hard work as he has done in former years. I wish him to explore Hayti, however, and then associate himself with Grisebach in the production of a Flora Antil- lana, or at least a Flora Cubensis, if Grisebach in- clines to work longer at West Indian botany, after having finished the critical enumeration of Cuban plants (founded mainly on Wright’s collections) which he is now occupied with. It seems like old times to be writthe to you. We have the less occasion for direct pestis iis of late years, owing to my having such a capital corre- spondent, as well as a capital friend, in Joseph. I know not how I could get on without him. I look with great satisfaction upon his splendid scientific career, and feel that you must take great pride in it. I rejoice to hear that you are so well and hearty, and at work with vigor, comfort, and success upon the “ Synopsis Filicum.” Dr. Brewer! sends his regards. He goes this week to New Haven (Yale College), to attend to the opening of his work as professor of agriculture. I was run- ning over his collections, naming and characterizing 1 William H. Brewer; botanist of the survey mi California ; pro- fessor in the Sheffield Scientific School, New Have: pemnbinvtinagehilyapenaiid &T. 54.) TO R. W. CHURCH. 533 the new things, and laying out a set for you of all you could wis But since spring opened, my college work has ide so pressing that all else has been in- terrupted, perhaps will be in abeyance till near mid- summer. I must not fail to tell you that our good friend Dr. Torrey sailed yesterday for California! via the Isth- mus, to return three or four months hence, perhaps overland. He is a much trusted officer of government, as assayer of the United States assay office at New York, and the secretary of the treasury, knowing that he needs some respite and change, has arranged this trip for him, upon business of the department, by no means of an onerous character. He has long wished to set eyes upon California, and I am glad he has such a pleasant opportunity of doing so. 10 R. W. CHURCH. May 1, 1865. I have long wished to communicate with you, but it is long since I have written any but pressing let- ters; a large and ever-increasing scientific correspond- ence and various business matters absorbing all my leisure and powers, as the times and events also ab- sorb our thoughts. You can imagine how deeply we have felt, rejoiced, and suffered during the last month or so. Well, “treason has done its worst,” and rebellion, as an organized power, is essentially brought to an end. Slavery is done away, and we have now the task of establishing a new and better order of things at the South, of replacing barbarous by civilized and 5384 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. (1865, free institutions. A heavy task, no doubt; but the good Providence that has so wonderfully shaped our ways and sustained us thus far, we humbly and con- fidently rely on to carry our dear country through all its trials. I doubt if you will have in England a full concep- tion of the profound impression which this last atro- cious crime has made,! filling the whole land with the deepest and tenderest grief, like that of a personal bereavement ; inexpressibly shocking, but never for a moment bewildering the country nor deranging the action of the government. The manner in which both our victories and sorrows have affected the country is most hopeful, and promises the best results. There is much yet to do and to suffer, and there is need of wisdom, patience, and sacrifice in the renovation of our country, and the establishment of free institutions throughout the South, involving as it does the com- plete reconstruction of society there. But under God’s blessing, we expect full success in due time. As to myself, I can say little now. I am quite overworked at this season, but I hope that hereafter a rearrangement of my work in the university may bring some relief. I am beginning to enjoy the advantage and comfort of the establishment of my herbarium, and the build- ing quite meets my expectations. The collections are fast increasing ; faster than I can take care of them, through the bounty of my scientific correspondents ; while Mr. Lowell’s donation of botanical books is of the value of about £300. 1 The assassination of President Lincoln. ae ae eee ea ee en 2 Chae 7. 55.) TO R. W. CHURCH. 535 November 16, 1865. Now do not be startled at a letter from me written the very evening of the day in which arrived your pleasant favor of the Ist inst. For to-day I also re- ceived the inclosed official letter, which has been lying, I suppose, for want of your address. And so I send it forward at once. In fact, the fund raised for the support of the her- barium (nearly $11,000) has been till very lately re- tained in the hands of the gentleman who took charge of raising it, in the form of a good investment, and is now at length made over to the corporation of the university in trust. Your £5 I turned in at the time when exchange was at the highest (i. e., our currency most depreciated), so it figures as fifty dollars, — quite a sum,— and for it, as for the rest of the capital, we get, up to 1881, six per cent per annum in gold, if the United States government lasts. And we now feel confident enough of that. Your letters are always very pleasant to us, and that of to-day is very gratifying. Yes, we, too, should not have said this was the way in which we would have had slavery destroyed, — by no means. We wished it by a slow process which would have cost no life, injured no property, but ben- efited all as it went on. But our misguided Southern brethren would have it otherwise, and so it was. And it is something to be glad of, after all, that it was done in our day, and we think thoroughly. I take a weekly newspaper, the “ Nation,” which is on the plan of the “Spectator” and the “Saturday Re- view,” etc., ‘but we have few good paragraph-writers, and our best writers will not write. But this paper may interest you, at least in the letters of its corre- 536 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1865, spondent traveling in the South. I post some num- bers to your address, and I will send some more if you care to see them. Otherwise the numbers are thrown aside, for I do not keep them. Even here we have the same sort of liking for Palmerston which the mass of English have, and no better reason to give for it; and we look with a sort of fascinated interest upon Gladstone, and expect to see him premier before long, in a year or two, and we wonder how he will get on in so critical a position as he will be in. Goldwin Smith I met, but saw not very much of. He was in very delicate health. Fraser I did not see, though he was my father-in-law’s guest, and was very much liked by all. Both had troops of friends. Mrs. Gray and I were in the country when Fraser was at Mr. Loring’s house on the shore. The short space left on my sheet must be all devoted to an earnest exhortation for you to follow your two friends’ example. Come over and see us, and make our quiet house your home, from which you can travel as much as you like and see the country in this inter- esting phase. Pray think of it seriously. The expense need not be great. Mrs. Gray, with kindest remembrances, seconds my request, and wishes it extended to Mrs. Church. Cordially yours, Asa Gray. TO CHARLES DARWIN. May 15, 1865. Your kind letter of the 19th ult. crossed a brief note from me. I am too much distracted with work at this season to write letters on our affairs, and if I once be- gin, I should not know where to stop. You have always been sympathizing and just, and I appreciate your prem eremmetereenisirmn Sans oe Va aE ie aes. CNT ax. 54.] TO CHARLES DARWIN. 587 hearty congratulations on the success of our just en- deavors. You have since had much more to rejoice over, as well as to sorrow with us. But the noble manner in which our country has borne itself should give you real satisfaction. We appreciate, too, the good feeling of England in its hearty grief at the murder of Lincoln. Don’t talk about our “ hating” you, nor suppose that we want to rob you of Canada, for which nobody cares. We think we have been ill-used by you, when you thought us weak and broken, and when we expected better things. We have learned that we must be strong to live in peace and comfort with England, otherwise we should have to eat much dirt. But now that we are on our feet again, all will go well, and hatred will disappear. Indeed I see little of that. I must look to the Plantago dimorphism, for, as you say, these plants, fertilized by the wind, would gain nothing by being dimorphic. No dimorphic species grows very near here, nor can I now get seeds of P. Virginica. Perhaps a good look at even dried specimens, under your hints, may settle the matter. I was exceedingly interested with the Lythrum paper (but had no time to write a notice of it), and I wait expectingly for your Climbing plants. You are the very prince of investigators. We hope pres- ently to make Mrs. Wedgewood’s acquaintance. July 24. I am reading in snatches your admirable paper on Climbing plants,— as yet only eighty-eight pages of it, and am watching with great interest all the climbers I have at hand. What a nice piece of work you have made of it! 588 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. (1865, I see you explain and illustrate at length the double turn of a caught tendril. Is it not enough to say that, with both ends fixed, if it shortens, say by the contrac- tion of one side, it must by mechanical necessity turn its coil different ways from a neutral point? Ere this, Mrs. Wedgewood should be back from Canada, but I have not yet learned that she is so. She was to let me know, and we would have a day on the shore, where Mr. Loring lives in summer,—a pretty bit of country. But it is now too late. I wish she could have been here on Friday, when we welcomed back our Harvard men who had been in the war, — over five hundred of them, — and remem- bered those who had died for their country. What a day we had! : Jefferson Davis richly deserves to be hanged. We are willing to leave the case in the hands of the gov- ernment, who must take the responsibility. If I were responsible, I would have him tried for treason (the worst of crimes in a republic), convicted, sentenced to death; and then I think I should commute the penalty, not out of any consideration for him, but from policy, and for his more complete humiliation. The only letters I have received expressing a desire to hang him are from rebeldom itself, — from Alabama. You see slavery is dead, dead, — an absolute unanimity as to this. The revolted States will behave as badly as they can, but they are so thoroughly whipped that they can’t stir, hand or foot, and we are disbanding all our armies, — a corporal’s guard is enough to hold South Carolina. Seriously, there are difficult ques- tions before us, but only one result is possible: the South must be renovated, and Yankeefied. Well, take good care of yourself, and let me know that you are again in comfortable condition. Sipe OE ss a Sian anes se SO lm ee ee ee xr. 54.] TO CHARLES DARWIN. 539 November 6. I am very glad to hear from you, and to see half your letter of October 19 in your own handwriting is a good sign. I do hope you may get a comfortable winter, and bring out your next volume without breaking down. I am pleased that you approve my abstract of your Climber paper, but observe it was only of the first part of your elaborate article. But as to the praise you speak of, [ am sure you pay me back with interest. I lately sent “Silliman” as much more —a large part, indeed, extracts, which I could not shorten — on the Tendril-bearing part of your paper. But Dana sent me the proof, with all my long extracts omitted for want of room. This reduced my article to incohe- rence, so I begged all to be laid over for the January number, when I hope to have room. I entertained our social scientific club here with your article, and all were greatly interested. As to climbing roses, they are the strong summer shoots, growing after flowering, which I find fre- quently running their heads into dark corners of the porch over my door, ete. That is very curious, but quite what I looked for, that dimorphous species self-fertilized should act like hybrids (sterile or dwarf, etc.). You must publish these facts in some brief arti- “ Stephens ” (Stevens) was a New Yorker; is dead, years ago; wrote most amusing and popular travels ; in Egypt, as well. Central America was his first and freshest book, but only amusing, as far as T recollect. 540 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. (1865, So Palmerston is gone. A fine specimen of a John Bull he was, a very typical specimen. We Yankees can’t help admiring and liking him, though not for any good he ever did us. But as for his successor, he is a prig, a juiceless stick. Don’t you think Adams pays him back nicely for proposing that they should sit down and rejoice to- gether over the abolition of slavery? Just see how the world has moved. , Turn back to Russell’s lecture to be read to Mr. Lincoln on occasion of his procla- mation of emancipation ! Good-by, my dear, good fellow, and recover health as fast as ever you can. ours affectionately, A. Gray. TO CHARLES WRIGHT. CAMBRIDGE, June 28, 1865. I am not going on so any more. A letter from me you shall have. To be sure I have had none from you since you sailed, but that is no matter. College and garden and herbarium work together are enough to drive one mad ; but now the college work begins to hold up, and will soon be over. And as to herbarium, Fendler has at length promised to come at the end of the summer and help me — all winter at least, perhaps longer. . . . Oh, yes! I have yours of “ Habana,” May 9th, with your shipboard studies on the variations of Chapman and Grisebach. Well, sometimes one wrong, sometimes the other; sometimes a difference as to who the author of a book is, — Michaux, whose name is on the work, Richard, who wrote it incog. T inclose my last from Grisebach. I am hoping to arrange to have the catalogue of Cuba plants printed zT. 54.) TO CHARLES WRIGHT. 541 or stereotyped at Gottingen, for the Smithsonian con- tributions, and have written Grisebach to cultivate his Spanish influence in the view of having that govern- ment at length patronize effectively the bringing out of a Flora Cubensis, by Wright and Grisebach. You owe this letter partly to the general disturb- ance of an uneasy conscience, and partly to a sudden cold caught by carelessness in hot weather, which un- fits me for more driving work. It is getting better. I hope to write you again before I catch a new one. July 4, Eighty-ninth Anniversary of the United States. Yours of June 9-21 reached me the very day that I mailed my last missive to you, a good long letter. Here is a fine letter from you, showing how busy and active aman you are. Pretty well for a man of your age to be shinning up palm-trees, and barking your shins. Be careful! Grisebach will take your criti- cisms all right, no doubt. Yesterday I got the in- closed from him. Very well. Is the Cuban M. Sau- valle? ... Dr. Hooker has sent me a specimen of Welwitschia, that queer African tree a foot high, many ange old, and with only two leaves, and those all in shre September 5. . Dear, good Sir William Hooker is dead, — of diphthovis —on the 15th August, six weeks over eighty years. I have no news yet from the family ; but learn indirectly that Dr. Hooker is sick, “a gastric affection.” I do hope it is nothing danger- TBS o's Dr. Gray wrote for the “ American Journal of 542 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1865, Science”?! a memoir of his dear friend, Sir William Hooker, in which, after describing his immense labors in eee of so many different branches, he Says : 6s Gus survey of what Sir William Hooker did for science would be incomplete indeed if it were con- fined to his published works, numerous and important as they are, and the wise and efficient administration through which, in a short space of twenty-four years, a queen’s flower and kitchen garden and pleasure grounds have been transformed into an imperial bo- tanical establishment of unrivaled interest and value. Account should be taken of the spirit in which he worked, of the researches and explorations he pro- moted, of the aid and encouragement he extended to his fellow-laborers, especially to young and rising bot- anists, and of the means and appliances he gathered for their use no less than his own. “The single-mindedness with which he gave himself to his scientific work, and the conscientiousness with which he lived for science while he lived by it, were above all praise. Eminently fitted to shine in society e never dissipated his time and energies in the round of fashionable life, but ever avoided the social prominence and worldly distractions which some sed- ulously seek. . . . “ Nor was there in him the least manifestation of a tendency to overshadow the science with his own im- portance, or of indifference to its general advance- ment. . cis the wide circle of botanists in which he has long filled so conspicuous a place, . . . it is superflu- 1 Scientific Papers of Asa Gray, selected by C. 8. Sargent, vol. ii. p- 321; also in American Journal Science and Arts, 2 ser., xli. p. 1 (1866). £7. 55.) TO R. W. CHURCH. 543 ous to say that Sir William Hooker was one of the most admirable of men, a model Christian gentle- man.” Dr. Gray was appointed by Mr. Peabody himself a member of the “ Board of Trustees of the Peabody Museum of American Archeology and Ethnology in connection with Harvard University’ when it was founded in 1866. The Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, offering the resolutions in memory of Dr. Gray, at the meeting in 1888, says, “ From first to last, as I can bear witness, he was a most faithful and valuable mem- ber of our Board; he was always at our meetings and took an active interest in all our work. In 1874, on the death of Jeffries Wyman, he voluntarily assumed the curatorship of our Museum, and did excellent service until the appointment of Professor Putnam.” TO R. W. CHURCH. Sunday evening, February 25, 1866. The number of the “Guardian” followed closely upon your note of the 9th instant, and I have just risen from the reading of your review of “ Ecce Homo.” I knew nothing of this remarkable book, beyond having seen the title. The notice in the 7 Spectator ” had escaped me, or rather, through a change in the order of circulationein our club, that number of “ Spectator” has not yet come round tome. But I have to thank you heartily for ealling my attention to it, and especially for sending me your own published and well-considered thoughts of it. I greatly admire your analysis of the book, and what I thus learn of it greatly impresses me. I shall procure it without delay. I long, not only to read it myself, but to put it into the hands of some 544. LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1866, friends. Such a production is timely, and will be very useful. I hope the unknown writer will go on and as he goes on bring out, in the same fresh and untechnical way, all the essentials of Christian belief. Even if he does not, it will have great value as it is; and one will be curious to see how he can fail to raise the superstructure which this foundation seems to be designed to bear. I have long thought it very im- portant that these subjects and the whole range of connected questions need to be treated by a layman from an unprofessional point of view, and quite apart from theological language or conventional modes of thought, say by a lawyer of a judicial turn of mind, or by a physicist or naturalist, who understands and feels the scientific difficulties, and the prevalent state of mind, especially among scientific people, which most divines persist in ignoring. As soon as I get this book, and have attentively read it, I shall probably wish to speak of it again to you. If I find that it does not receive notice in this country, I will see that attention is in some way called to it. But I should think it likely to attract attention in this country at once I have never thanked you for your letter of Decem- ber 6, and for the hope, faint though it be, that you may come over and see us some day. Pray don’t give over the thought, and some day you may chance to bring it about. Cambridge is not a bad point from which to sally forth in little explorations of American life, . We have much anxiety as to what we can do with the South now we have got it; and our President Johnson is not a Lincoln. The eek which has just occurred, and which may cause great trouble, has > mT. 55.) TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. 545 been feared for some time; and the blame is to be assigned in part to the indiscretion and impractica- bility of a few of the advanced Republican leaders. We have survived worse scenes and darker prospects, and shall surmount these troubles, I trust, in time. But here things cannot always be done in the wisest Way... . I imagine Earl Russell is safe for a year or two, since no other minstry could well be found to replace him. I should like, before long, to see Gladstone at the helin. TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. . . . The small parcel from Andersson ? has come. From him I have a nice oil copy of the portrait of Linneus,? painted by Madame Andersson. an ° is here, excellent, loyal man all through ; hates copperheads; is soon going back, so that you can write him at Apalachicola for Junci. I have told him what you are at with the genus. March 20, 1866. T have got Mann ‘ well installed in Fendler’s place, and he is doing well, doing botanical work, too, on his Sandwich Island plants; will bring out an Enum. Pl. Hawaiens. .. . 1 Johann Nils Andersson, 1821; professor of botany at Stock- holm a The portrait is in the herbarium of the Museum at Stockholm 3 A. W. Chapman, b. 1809. Southampton, Mass. Residing at Agee lachicola, Fla. ; author of the Flora of ihe Southern States. orace Mann, 1 1868. Made large collections in the Sand- wich Islands. Wrote ‘‘ Enumeration of Hawaiian Plants,’ Proceed- ings American Academy, 1866, 546 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1866, July 30. Back to-day from a coasting voyage of four or five days, I find yours of 25th instant. ... I have promised Clinton! I will go to Buffalo, to the meeting reviving the American Association ; then back home, to work, by 20th August. About the Prussian war I think as you do. About domestic matters I have not changed at all my mode of thinking, as I know. But no time for these things... . TO CHARLES WRIGHT. May 19, 1866. . . Lam so driven, so distracted. Bless your stars you are not a professor, and president of Academy, and have a’botanical garden and no gardener well trained, and have students, and everything. My cor- respondence all in arrears, and I am getting hardened and don’t care. . . You know I am heaps hard pressed and hard worked at this season; and this year it is far worse than ever. Besides the bother of my classes, unusu- ally bothering on the new arrangement, there is a new gardener and a great deficit or rather deficiency of funds to carry on the Garden, so I have to run that concern pretty much myself. And, to crown all, my little new French gardener, in his anxiety over the work, has got into a state of nervous excitement, gets no sleep nights, and if not soon relieved will, I fear, become truly insane. . . . If he continues half crazed, you may expect me crazed next. Then there are some special scientific students working up here, to add to my botheration. 1 George W. Clinton, 1807-1885; author of A Catalogue of the Native and Naturalized Plants of the City of Buffalo, and its vicinity. £7. 55.] TO GEORGE BENTHAM. 547 So do not you “ growl” at me now if you ean help it. Alas, your Algz will be too late for dear Harvey. He is dying of consumption, and we may hear of the end any day. This is all at present from Your old, worn-out friend, Asa GRAY. TO GEORGE BENTHAM. June 12, 1866. We have as many asters as we can manage in Amer- ica, and in the northern hemisphere of the Old World. I pray you keep out at least Australian things if it be possible. I envy you more and more in being able to devote yourself to systematic botany steadily, without the distraction and sad consumption of time in profes- sional and administrative duties and avocations, which make havoc of the opportunities of most botanists, and make their work which they are able to do far less valuable than it would otherwise be. And you work on with such quiet determination! The lamented losses of the last year or two have already made you the Nestor, though I cannot think you old. I do hope you have a fair number of good working years yet, in which you can make your great experience tell to utmost advantage. . . Much against my will, T have this summer to work upon a new edition of my “ Manual of the Northern United States Botany,” to which there is much to be done. I shall not, however, so recast the work as I should if I could defer it till I had blocked out the outlines of a similar but much larger volume for all the United States of America, and till your “ Genera Flora” had been carried much farther. 548 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. (1866, What do you intend for this summer? >>> > b> >> > > > b D> , ” cee) = nies yo 636, 641, 733. elbing "te at Grotto of, 212, 213. 9, 343-346, 349, 410, 432, siz, A ., 719, 747, 600. Agriculture , Mass. Society for Promo- tion of, siz. Albro, J. A 328, 395. ya ain Botany of Southern, 280. Allen, A. V.G re cane pine Plants, 229 ; ; what they are, 783. Alvord, Col. and Mes. > Lod, TIO. American Acade 65 7, 405, 700; corresponding sec! retary of, 355 ; presi- dent, 641. American Association, 698, 735, 7 OF ings pod big —— Science,”’ 19, 32. iB 3 42 oe J. N., 545. Anemone Hudsonica 46. Ann » WD, ie epition 130, 162. i iG. rons Bre Andersson, tolia, 652. ? \rnold, Matthew, 747, 748. ott, G. A. W., 22, 96, 129, 130. . C., 755. rthur, a C., and nace — to, T77. ssassination of Lincoln Asters, 279, 696, 697, 609, 701, 713-716, very, C., 9, 10, 18. ye E., x 8, 9. Azalea, 315. ington, C., 713. , 744, 753, T5T, 784, 785, Pe ‘ Banks’ herbarium, 148. Barber, 770. Barbey, 720. rice nal 16, 18, 19, 29, 37, 49. loess 7“ Bau uer, ¥., 22, 116, 128, 129. Beaumont, J. F., 302, "394. Beck, L. 6. 15, 16, 39. » 40. Beck’s Flora, Bell, Sir C., age “131. a ie Jd “5 Dy 110, 137, 371, 592,596, Bentham, George, references to, 22, 114, 123, 126, 128, bry 148, 152, 376, 378, 41 407, 486, 54 * 559, 566, 592, 611 685, 702, 712, oon. 733, 741, 743, 758, 759, 760, 797, ’g14. Poninvidy, = Poke to, 267, 365, » 487, 447, 547, 552, 559, 06, oor 745. Ps Ig al 187, 188. L., 173; plants of, 415. Berlin, Royal Herbarium, 268. 269. Bigelow, Jacob, 284, 288, 558, 685. Bignonia oe (Tendrils), £18, Birth, 3-5 Bir! irth-day, 70th, 710; 75th, 776. 830 INDEX. Blachford, Lord, 654, 664, 665, 693, 749, Blume, C. L., 376. Boat-r deme! International 591, 594. Boissier, E., 24, 26. , 167, 374, 375, 418, 589, 680 81. nder’s collection, 559. Boott °M. D., 22, 91,110, 123, 132, 149, 370, 473, rth bil, 522, —— Carices, 91, ‘71 Bornet Git. Botanic Garden, Cambridge, 28, 296, bd 298, 304, oa 326, 357, "445. 569, ie. inbrg, 101, 105. 270. od t, 372. “omedg 89. ee py din des Plantes, 23, 24, 157, 158, Kew, 116, if 377, 384 Leyden, 376 Li Ch I Ge ( ( ] Montpellier , 136, 187. hénbrunn, 21) (8. Tharand Forst-Academie, 589. Valencia, Log , 368. Botany, pi of taste for, 14. aptocy ee See Geographi- Botanical Boclaky; Royal, of Regensburg, Brackenridge’ Filices, 404, 423, Brandeg ag 671, 672. yh 374, 383 1 BSi, 756, Ps 791, 7 sidiaad ritish Museum 110, 132, 146, 153, 379, 387, 502. ses, sis Britton, N . L., letter to, 813. —— iart, A. T., 23, 174, 382, 418, 611. rooks, Phillips, 805. Sierra ord, Brown, R., 22, 0, 112, 115, 120, 124, 128, 13! 32,” 141, iL 175, 371, 376, 378, 387, 418, 442, "443, "449, 451, 1, 468, 498. 31, 756. Bury, Lady "Charlotte, 120, 121, 137. Butler, B. F., 746, 748. 491. Cc 5 dep ~~ journey to, 627, 670, 761. Calluna vulgaris Cambridge, Mass., appointment at, 27. epee 287. cage pone England, degree Canby, W , Letters to, 556, 64 651, 682, si, 1393 cal oy or 633, 686. Canby and Redfield, letters to, 712, Canterbury, Archbishop of, “— Carex, Boott’s collection of, 91, — John, 20, 26, 33, 322, od, 407, car hiss 742. Pe Sy 740. eure W., 592. Cathe: Cats, 436. Cavendish, Censorship i the dagrset hi eer aa. “ Ceratophyllac a. yo Cereus giganteus, 408. tne rs, 102 a ee Catesby, plants of, 146. — 806. Chapmannia, Gharectextikicn ‘of the North American Flora 756. Chevreuil, 797. Chiswick Gardens, 116. $ St ae COS mee Ran IS at ee a rT gene INDEX. 831 Clift, W. Climbing ee 537, 539, 548, 549. , Grammar School, 7, 8. olen. » THA. Collectors, 272, Bat, See, also, Ber- landier, Bol ond, holtz, Hendler Frémont ‘Geyer, hata! Some Kneiskern r Michauss Nuttall, ‘alm- ingle, Pursh, Rugel, — well, Thurber, Wislizenus, Wright. College of Surgsons Ai. Collinson, Peter, 370. Commonwealth (Vegetable), 496. pr ide 26, 21. t, 400, 401. Cooper, “Sir Astey, i 119, Cooper, Bransby, hick Gomsiehn, 816. Co A. C. pa 7 221. Corema, 775, Cosson, E., 6 09, Rl ve Coulter’s aes Coulter, i Cowles, ba el B. af") 19, 32, 43. Creighton. Cross Fe: rtiltsation. See Fertilization. Curtis, M. A., 652. Cusick, W., 726. * Cypernoor, North American Gramines and,’’ 19, 45 was Cypress knees, 416, 421. Cypresses of Chapultepec, 763, Dana, J. D., letters to, 424, 430, 521, 626, 785 j references to, 337, 338, 430, Bana, R. ., Sr., 296. Darbya, 686. Darlington, William; 3 370, 423, 499, 500. 566, 594,” 626, 642, 695, 714, 722, 732, ry 751, 815. ——— Letter to Asa Gray, 557. ‘* Darwin, Charles, Life of by A. Gray, , 662, arwinism. See Evolution. Daveony Sir » 332, 9. Decaisne, J., 23, 157, 161, 162, 168, 174, 381, 382, 611, 683, 687, 709, 712, 721, ~ e Candolle, Auguste Pyramus, 26, 47, 267, 281, 332, 374, 498; bust of, 727. Al 451, 481, 497, 519, 526, 552, ‘ 592, 606, in , 635, 639, 642, 669, et 684, 692 694, 699, 702, 712, 714, 727, 373, 783, 793 ; references to, os 267, 375, 448, 702, 712, 718, 719, 720, 724) 746, 781, 785. De Cand le, ‘Casimir, von 566, 719. Degr Cambridge, England, 800; Edinburgh, ise Oxford, 801. > , 166, 169, 171, Design in Nature, 485, 789, 498, 502, 508, 2, 638, 648, 656, 658, 659. Det Dial Sh 3s O57, 561, 633, 642, 649. ag om of Plants. See Geograph- tany. 435, 436, 599, 676-678. Don, David, 110, 137. Douglas, Davi —— 90, — 123, 279. Dou uglass, Downing, Major og ib. Drake, Miss, 131. Drosera rotundifolia, 510, 556, 557, 633, ; Drummond” 's Louisiana plants, 173, 279. by, J : , 187. Dyer, W. Thisleton, 734, 762. Early Undertakings, 29-84. 832 INDEX. Eaton, Amos, 14, 40. Eaton, D. C., lette rs to, 438, 470; re- Fine » 20, 32, 64. ceives Garber’s plants, 702. ‘irst pee a eh to American Journal Mauna Manual of het C4 wig ies ce, _ - * Ecce Homo,’ “ t Lessons in Botany,’ 414, 418, Edinburgh, vist to ‘(1839), 97-105. iat “44k Education, rst Plant determined, 14. Education, Botany, in liberal, 325, Fi scher, 74. t, 572-586; plants in, 575, 576; | Fisher, G. P., 696. 2. Fisher Professorshi chler, 5 Elements of Botany,” 20, 27, 32, 54. ‘*Eleme — Botany,” 1887, 792. Eliot tS, Eliot, _C. We, 526; letters to, 620, 634. ee i. 7 Embryo of Pinus, 151 Emerson, G. » 292. ory, 356. Endlicher, 8. L., 25, 210, 215, 795. Engelmann, G., letters to, 281, 291, py 355, 360, "83, n, G., Jr., 772. bs t Hpistolis Linnean ee 410. Essa and Revi 464. bends journeys ier First, 21, 85, 271; second, 369-388; third, 414 - 4207 Poona: 565-599 ; fifth, 701— ~T24 ; sixth, 3, 695. = Agassiz’s views of, in 1847, Exhibition, London, 1851, 379, 384 Reploring Expedition , U.8., 21, 61, 1, OF, 359, 366, 376, 398, 409, 484, 6 North Pacie, atk Fairchild, 666, 667. Fairfield ‘Academy, 8 Fairfield — Coll 1 a ege, 12, 29, Far Doe Ww. G., 617, 625, 640, 762, 765, 766, 770. Farnsworth, rarer 78. Fendler, A., 341, 343, ig as, mm, 361, 426, 447, 515, 531, 540, 650 Fendlera, "391. Fenzl, E., 25, 218, 222, 795. Ferns, Fertilization, 425, on 485, 493, 505, 508, 509, 539, 664, 695. ip, 27. Flax spinning introduced, 5. Flora, Beck’s, 39. Flora of California, 636, 641, 643, 694. Flora or Fauna, chistes of, 657. ower, Sir W. H., 595, 722, 754. Fox, Miss, 755. Feratco-German Migs 606, 608, 609, 612. rase 34, 1 Free’ Fremantle, 806. Fremont Expedition ee ae 327. Fresenius, J. B. G. W., Froude, 74 42. Fry, Sir E., Letters to, 729, 738, 746, 754, 779, 789, 810. Galileo, 743. Garber’ s Porto Rico Sen" 702. Rev. Mr. 58, 1, occ Lindheimeri, 313. er Jacques, 24, 159, 171, 381, 383, Ui haat Illustrata,’? 340, 344, 347, 353, 355, 357, 361, 363. Geographical Botany, 46, 276, 420, 424, 427, 434, 445, 447, 449, "775. = Geograph ie e Botanique, »” De Candolle, iinckeene ” Miss, 80 Seg visit = 18), 89-95. Godet Go die, a, cm Goodale. G. - _ 640, 728, 787. Gould, A. A. Graham. Graha et 33 98, 100, 101, 105. “Graminew and C perenen North American,”’ 19, os Granville, Lord, 804 Grasses, Hooker’ B, 92. ’ Gray, — of, by R. W- Chur Pong ‘n ate, 114, 596. INDEX. — 833 Gray, J. L., Gray, M wine A A A., letter to, 710. Gray, Mrs, Asa, letters to, 349, 659. Gray, Moses, 2, 4, 5, Loge le tters to, 47, , 313 Gray, Mrs. (moth er of Asa), letters to, Gray, Family ig Gra. Greville, K., oe a8, 101, 105, 106, 132. Grise! HR , 224, 383, 516, 532, 540, 541, Grisebac 's manuscripts, 495. Gronovian _ 150. Guillemin —- ‘trial of, 730. Guthrie, Rev. Dr. 102, ‘ Gaye, ee 459, 9, 463. Hadley, J., Prof., 10, — ~ 18, 41, 42. Hadley, Prof. as "Juni aah Pa gies 5195. Hakim-Pacha, “BBS. Hamilton College, 10, 18, 42, 45. 70, 571. Hartweg, T., 150. Harvard Botanic Garden, 285, 290, 291, 299 ; House, 314, 327. Harvard Colle appointment, 27 Helianthus tuberosus, 398. Henry, Joseph, a 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 9 cando le, 18, 267, 374, 718, Pia ree Do or Poiret, 23, 176, Tots Plantes, Musée du, 172, 382, 709, 715, 799. Herbariums Kew, 377, 378, 565, 701, 791. Kunth, 269, Labilliardiére, 173. asca, 720. ee 173, 716, 792. » 111, 128. ny 269. ve ion ms 173. Mic » 23, 162, 164, 172, 178, Mill, 659. Nuttall, 193, 697. Oxford, 379. Poiret, 173, i 111, 128, 136, 148, 152, Richard, 1 172, 173, 178. yal Her rbarium, Berlin, at berg, 269. Hooker, W. ‘de - letters to, 50, 57, 268, 278, 277, 282, 280, 298, 304, 306, 324, 7, 364, 367, 392, 401, 403, 411, 415 421) 433, 440, 449, 498, 531; references to, 21, , 33, 89-92, 103, 110, 130, “hig 378, Sal 418, 437, 442, 499, 541, 54 1 dq 41, 565, 566, 75, 678, 679, 23, 752, 792, Joad,. 752. Jussieu, 23, 173, 175, 709. How: Howkant, ze a to, 590, 593. 834 INDEX. Hudsonia montana, 310. Lectures, first in Cambridge, 300-303, Huet, 426. 325; Lowell Institute, 294, 314-316, Hiigel, Baron, 219. 318, 324, 328, 330, 331, 339; Smith- Hughes, T., 608. sonian, 403 ; Yale College, see Yale Humboldt’s ea 173. Lehmann, J. G. C., 20, 44, 56, 269, Hunneman, J., 149. Leitner, 790. Hunter, eg 1k7, mmon, » 675, 727. Huxley, T. H., 458, 504, 505. enses, Je es Hyam Hs ”M. Dr 681, 682, 683, 692. Hyatt, Bing Hybrids, 50, a 458. Tliad, ng oo . 613. e, 561. leaders yea a 556, 557, 561, 633, 641, 645, 647, 64 Irving, Washington 2 . & M., Jacquin, Baron ne, bat, 795. James, Mrs. r to, 500. James,.T. P., a Jameso! 00. Japan Flora, 445, 447, Japanese plants, 315. Jardin des Plantes, 23, 24, 157, 161, 178, ae oar y4 715, 792. 108, al 309, 380. Journal in Europe (1838-39 , 85. Jussieu, Adrien de, a yo _ os ‘366, 381, 382, 400, Jussiew’s herbarium, ae ennedy, G., koe 22, 116, a0 383, 418, 542, 592, 701, 702, 710, 715, 720, 722, 724, 792, 81 0. es, 667. Korner, 795. : Kunth, K. §., 26, 173, 269. cao ig M6; his plants, 720. erase Se Asters and Herbarium, 269, Pi 716, 7 bert, He B., 22, 111, 120, 128, 132, Lawrence, Abbott, 379. pe Conte, J. E., 18. : ure Room, 604, 614, 619. saree first course, course, 13, 16. 30, 640. ary, Bot: eat ba at Cambridge, 694, Liddell, Dean, 802. non Lisstuainar, F, 291, 298, 340, 343, 391. Lindley, John, 22, 115, 127, 130, 131, 152, en asters, 715. +26, 269. us, 97, 498, 00. heen, Birthday Celebration, 236; portrait t of, 545. py as Loddiges ci 97, 1 Toma Vis it to 0 a, 110-153. kou Loring, Lowell, iA “4 293, 342, 354, 362, 3€8, 530, Lowell, John, 439. ie ell, J. R., 714, 804. seh insite cpa 294, 314, 316, ots 8 4, 328, 330, 339. Lowell eee Religion in, 725. Lubbock, 731. Lyceum of Natural History, New York, 20, 31, 37, 56, 63. Lyell, 118, 129, "346, 384, 503, 732. ae i. n, H , BAB, 566, 570. “Manual of Botany,” 33, 334, 346, 353, 355, 41 , BAT. Marcet, Prof Marcon, J., Marriage, 358. abr Me be Martius 25, 232, 2, 375, Oe 589. a ~ Mary Queen 379, ro, 802. Masters, M. T., 592, 702. Mather, Dr., 13. Ma aimee ang MeDowel, gy 769. McGuffey, C. J., 2. Medical on aes: Fairfield, 12, 29. * Melant m Americe Septentrio- nalis Revisio,”” 20 Melastomaceze. 78. Mellichamp, J. H., 647, Menzies, A., 23, 121, 126, 141 ico, journey to, 761-77< et: ¥: ve 82, " ere | Michigan, Ualvrty of 2,7, 274, 282, 283; A. G.; Professor at, 21. x INDEX. 835 ving a 135, 137, 138, 147, 175. Miers, J , 131. Mill, J. 8., Miller plants of, 146. Mineralogy, 13, ag. 19, ioceinny se of Jefferson and St. Law- ae OE es, pid a” dia , J. M., 782. Moggridge, J. T., 571. Mohl, Hugo von, 267. = Monograph Ps cH American Rhyn- chos Mon’ Sikaati, e hy 164, 418, Montpellier, 1185-2189, 509 Moquin. n, 400. oe ra rris, D., 762. Mossley, 7 77 reg id a ings Gray, 3, 5. in Plants, Power of,’? Dar- Mae, 665. Muhlenberg, Munich’ Botanic Garden, 233, 240. Munr el v. 446. Murfree, Miss M. N., 812. Murillo, 7' Murray, Miss, 416. Museum, Bo tanical, at Cambridge, 440- Muséum, ag herbarium of, 172. Museum of Natural History, at Cam- bridge, 351. ** New or = Plants of State of New York,” 19 Nicoll, W., 99, 101, 102, 105. Noel, Baptist, 122, "133, 144. Nomenclature. 3, 408, 427, 434, 515, 521, 552, , 685, 699, 700, 7a 7 ‘ ee ‘hristopher (Professor Wilson), 00, 104. North, Miss, 810. bos Hoek 1 American eae and Cy- ?” 49, bie North A. American "Plants, Synopsis of,” North pape journeys to, 26, 28, 280, Nuttall’s oe 697 ; plants, 278. Nuttalia, 0 Nymphza flava, 790. s, W.y 334-336, 672. Oaks 72 Oliver, D, 512, 592, 617, 702, 810. msted, F. L., 371, 421. Oronids, Fertilization of,”? Darwin, 480, 484, 486, 489, 509. Orchis pyramidalis, 481; spectabilis, Sten, collection of Wilkes’ Expedition, 22, 639. Origin of Species, 455, 456, 457, 458, 472, 480, 485, 486, 498. See Evolution. 117, 45: Oxford University, 404. Oxford, degree at, 801. Packard, 623. Padua, 204. Paget t, 802. Palgrave, Sir Francis, 117, 118, 122. ia nal Chihuahua collection, 782. oes domrg 536, 540. ine, aga i. Pardie, J., Paris, visit i 2 (1899), 153-180. arish, 8. B., 726, 767. Parish’ collection, 726. Park, Prof., 655, 656 Par] ker, Judge Pert a 2 cee og 142. Parry’ and dead 8 na Mexican Compo- sitz,”’ Parsons, My ‘507. Pascal, 743. Passion flower, 611, assiflora acerifolia, tendrils of, 611. ur, 511, 550. ta] Pedro. Peirce, Benjamin, 296, 328, 330. at a Peni, OO; Per: n, C. . , 336. Betalanthers 146, Peters, T. Philadelphus, 428, Philip, Photography, discovery of Daguerreo- wel re 3 A Talbotypes, 379. Phyllotax Pictures in Spain, arr’ sat mae 64, 675 ; ponderosa, 663,686, elt Nuttall, 92, 282, 3: Planchon, J. E., 569, Plantamour, 719, 836 INDEX. 6 _— Wrightiane,” 389, 391, 392, 393, 4: Plants, introduced, nate 325. ~ 2 se 2 Ba ct o oO 4 2 i=) = < o Ee oppig, E. F., 267. Porto ‘Rico collection, 702. pie —— drawing of A. Gray, 94; b e, St. Gaudens, 752. we: 13. Pringle, C. G., 727, 782. Pursh, F , iil, 734; herbarium of, 22. Pusey, 73 Putnam ,G. P » 23, 142, 143, 152, 265. Putterlich, A., roid. Pylaie’s, De la, herbarium, 173. Pyxidanthera, 304. Quarter-millennial of Harvard College, Quekett, E. J, 129, 130, 140. soe Ee 672. t, 27, 283, 293. Raffles, T., 86. Rafinesque-Schmaltz, 8. C., 278. Rebellion, 465, pi 469, 470, 471, 478, 480, 481, 483, 486 , 487, 490, 494, 495, oo 503, 506, Bll, 512, 518, 522, 526, Reconstruction (of United States govern- ment), eS 549, 554. Redfield, J. H., early impressions of A. Guy, "Hi; Wess tn oo Ga OE 701, — —— anby, letters to, 712, Reichenbach, H. Gottlieb, 267. Rei chenbach, H. Gustave, 811. on and fcmen Yale lectures, ’ F., 26, 890. Rhamnus Parviflora, 307. Virginica, 478, 484. Rhizoma, enlargement of, meaning, 52. Rhododendron 315, 692. a Ore, Monograph of North ret 719, 31, 60. Riako, ik ; Rich, W., 21. ; Richard, A., 24, 164, 400, 540. Richard, Richard's herbarium, 173, 178. ad a = i 110, 112, 364. oe een cabin ae ea SEE z Rivley, Mrs., «280. Rob! ae J. W., 686. nied 123. ee a Roeper, J. A. C., 700, 716. Rogers, oa ar +e TBI. Roget, P. M. 1 Us ‘us, 129, prance 361. Saccardo, P. A., 718. Sandwich Island plants, 90. Sand ay Santa Barbara, reception at, 768. 685, 807. Sarrac 64 radi hy Bho Senadny Review, 479. Sauquoit, 2-5. Sau nssure 719. ‘bu 689, 691. er Tart Care a, . mper, W. BS + O97. nus molle, a Ps htendal, D. F. L. von, 26, 267. a 151. n Botanic Garden, 218, 795. ing, E ;. ag 218. 451. a Trovattns, G. Bie, reg a aaa C. a 99, 235, 239. ul eS & oe rEPees is TTT wiigri lle Beas 207. went, og 7 17, 44, hweinitz ag Scientific Giub, 287 — en 652, 653. Sem ? sails, Mscaoie, eon et en INDEX. 837 ** Sequoia and its history,’’ 628, 638. a ee eon e, N. C., 24, 1 453, 468, 752, 753, Shaw Botanic Garden, 761, 782. aoa J.5 pot rt, C. W., 411, 447, 498. Sheree aes, 178, 179, 681, 682, 692. Hany a 446, 761, 782. See Am. Journal , 685. ithsonian’ Institution, 397, 403, 665; 5 29, 730. ats 95. Snake country collections, 90, 92. , 434, ih Pac ific _ poring Expedition, See Explorin Spach, E., 23, 165, 176, 382, 418. Species, 520, 617, 657, 744. See also Evolution, origin Species, de oe of, 497 ; essential Sdditg, 7 Spelling ber . 787. apa gt 409, 740 , 759. ry: 7 OL. t n., 671. * Structural canis 814. “ Studi Solidago and Aster,” 726. Subspecies, Subtropical Plants, Mexican, 765. Sullivant, W. 8., 28, 129, 280, , 306, 308, 310, 318, 360, 390, 433, 514, 640, Sumner, i 494 Siiss, E., 795. Motinecons. es tour in 1839, 240- 263 ; (1869) 590, 8; ied al Flora. See Flora. Talbot ea 805. Talbot, F 127. Pargtont-iGanettl, 200. Ta Taylor, ‘Richard, 114, 117. Taylor Taxus Aone Bly one in Utiea, 1, 18, 19, 29, 37. oe gt ie Teleo Tenple, Ssiahon, GOL Fe, — = 510, 512, ” 538, 539, 548, e avs, 38, ** Text - Book, Botanical,”? 28, 281, 282, 286 289, 290, 297, 329, 334, "365, 366 93, hayer, J.B gtoke « a, Elémentaire,” De Candolle, Them , W. H., 380, 713. Thom mpson n, T., 380, 592. fs ge Sir “Wiliam, 7 59. Thurber, G., rs to, 408; references to, 406, rate Thurber ria, 408, 409. Thuret, G., 569, 572. ‘519. mas 8. sedge Torrey, Herbert Gray, 14 Torrey, J., letters ty 3-45 51, 91, 149, pier 297, 303, 307, a] B18, 324, 369, 445, 450, rig ’ BIT, "596, "641, "6223 18, 20, 29 31 48, 134, 405, 415, 485, 560, 51 3 514, 533, 558, 595, etters to, 67 152. » 16h, 1, 305; sass to, 30, 4 415. Torrey, the i letters to, 153, 163. noe 428, 650, 651. Townsend, 278 Traill, 759. Transport boats, articulated, 759. ak D., 27. iE, Ming 382. Trees of of North ate 362, 364, 366. Tre sig a iinecenataes’ 2 Trichomanes Petcrsil, 394. Trichomanes radicans, 392, 394. Trimen Trisetum M Tolle, 46. Trow —— J. F., 14, 15, 41; Letters to, 838 United States Exploring Expedition. See Exploring University of Michipa, 21, 76, 83, 270, 4, Utica, 16, 18, 19, 29, 37. Vaccinium brachycerum, 343. Val Crucis, 309. bi mmeewei W., 144, 149. “ Variation of Pla 7 po Animals under Thostunetieaschoent Vase een ny to i= ‘Gray, 776. Vasey, G., 68 Vaughan, st. Wallace, 613, 714. Wallich, N., 37 9. basse ter, T., rs herbarium, 130, 136, 813. war See Rebe Ward, N. B., 3 ‘120, 126, 132, 137, 144, 369, 370. Ward cases, 126. Wartmann, 719. Watson, S., 622, , 669, 694, wa "787, 788, "81 3. Webb, bf Barker, 23, 157, 173, 382. Webb's herbarium, 173. 727, 729, INDEX. hadi agg Miss, 755. wan "88. Weisner, 7 Well ington. See also Sequoia, 408. Welwitschia, 541. Whitues’ Charles W., 73-79. Whi 388. Wilkes, %. A308, 392, 622 Will, 816. Willdenow, 26; ma ain 268, 709. illiams. sl bi Well Williamson, W. » 02, 791, 807. Willoughby Dr., 12. n (Christopher North), 100, 104. Winter, American, 739. em A 35 ‘Charl rles, Letters to, 352, 360, Wright 362, 389, 405, 413, 482, 494, 516, 540, Sgr 5D4. bss, 1303, refer- = , 550, os, 617, "nS. v4. Wi ‘ight, 7 ster Botany Wright, G. F., 9 Renal to, 655, 666, 684 Wyman, J., 303, 327, 502, 505, 511, 550, 553, 600, oe de Vesey, L. J., 466. us, Californian Plants, 466. Yale College Lectures, 693, 694, 699, 700. Zuccarini, J. G., 25, 234, 235, 315. Zygodon, Bones of, ” 303.