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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
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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.
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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.
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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? ) ten ge et en eee See
£7. 71.] TO SIR EDWARD FRY. 731
highest-class daily papers are little better than the
lowest. I suppose the telegraph reporting for the
press is all done by one set of men, and the more sen-
sational the reports the more welcome to the papers,
which, with few exceptions, print without any selec-
tion or discrimination.
I have settled down to my work with enjoyment,
but with a growing sense of discouragement growing
out of an embarras de richesses. It was natural to
find here a great accumulation of collections of North
American plants, all needing examination ;_ but unfor-
tunately, they continue to come in faster than I can
study and dispose of them. This comes from the
increasing number of botanical explorers, and the
new facilities offered to them by new railroads along
our southwestern frontiers and other out-of-the-way
regions. The consequence is, that while new and in-
teresting things are pouring in, which one must attend
to, and which are very enjoyable, I do not get ahead
with the steady and formidable work of the ‘ North
American Flora.” I begin to think it were a happier
lot to have the comparatively completed botany of an
old country to study, in which your work “were done
when ’t were done,” and in which, even if it were not
done quickly, you were not called on to do it over and
over, to bring the new into shape and symmetry with
the old.
By the way, I finally wrote out an article on a ques-
tion which you once treated, and upon which we more
than once conversed, taking for my text a paragraph
in Lubbock’s address at York last summer. I had
partly promised Mr. Walter Browne to write it, so I
sent it to him; and as a proof from the “ Contempo-
rary Review” has come back to me, I suppose it may
732 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1882,
be printed before long.! I shall be curious to know
what you think of it.
I sent you a portion of a New York religious news-
paper containing a sort of review of two books with
which I beguiled the voyage last October or Novem-
ber. It is of no great consequence. But I sometimes
write such reviews or articles to papers of this kind,
which are endeavoring to do their best in bridging
over the gap between the thoughts of a former gener-
ation, or of our younger days, and of the present day.
I believe such articles are now and then helpful.
You supposed that I had seen the “ Lyell’s Life
and Letters” sooner than I had. To my surprise the
volumes are not reprinted in America; and I have
only just succeeded in procuring a copy from England.
I have read a good deal of. it, and with much inter-
est. The allusion to me, which you referred to, was
of course very pleasant. The last chapter of the
“ Antiquity of Man” had apprised me (for I never
had any direct correspondence with Lyell) that we
thought much alike on such matters; and we are apt
to approve views which agree with our own. I always
thought Lyell a very level-headed man, — one with a
very judicial turn of mind ; and his letters and journal
bring this out well, as they do the whole life and the
charming character of the man. It is interesting to
see how early he took the line which he followed in his
whole life’s work, and which has changed the face of
geology and philosophical natural history. For, in-
deed, Lyell is as much the father of the new mode of
thought which now prevails as is Darwin. I have
said a word about this, which I will try to send you.
That is a noble letter to Mr. Spedding, about the
1 Contemporary Review, xli.
&T. 71.] TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 733
American war. We knew that was in him. During
the time of trouble, our then minister in London, Mr.
Adams, and Mrs. Adams used to say that Sir Charles
and Lady Lyell were almost their only, and their
very stanch and efficient supporters.
If you happen to know who the author of “The
New Analogy,” by Cellarius, is, I beg you will let me
know. Although as a whole it may not amount to
much, there are some capital hits in it.
I have been writing you a monstrously long letter.
I have only space to ask you to give my kind remem-
brances to Lady Fry and the young people, of all
whom we have such happy memories.
TO A. DE CANDOLLE.
March 16, 1882.
. Your letter of the 25th of February tells me
of the will of dear Decaisne, whom we shall miss
greatly. The main disadvantage of our years is in
these losses, which to us are never made up. He was
a very true friend.
I am glad you ait ‘aiak a supplement to the “ Lois.”
When you have it in hand I wish you would com-
municate to me, in letter, your main points on the
critical questions. You, Bentham, and I are most in
accord; and we ought to agree, essentially. Upon
any critical points, I had much rather make my com-
ments, for whatever they may be worth, before you
print than afterwards. I have kept phznogamous
botany essentially orthodox in the United States. . . .
May 15.
. It is now all but a year since Mrs. Gray and
I had that charming week at Geneva!
734 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. _ [1882,
Much has happened since then. We have lost dear
old Decaisne ; and now Darwin! We hardly should
have thought, twenty-five years ago, that he would
have made such an impression upon the great world,
as well as on the scientific world !
I do not know if you ever saw much of him. He
was a very charming man.
Here we have lost, at a good age, both Longfellow
and Emerson.
have been anxious about Bentham, from whom
there were discouraging accounts; but his last letters
are hopeful, and he is steadily at work. Let me
hope, and let me know, that you are quite well; also
Madame De Candolle.
TO J. D. HOOKER.
CAMBRIDGE, September 17, 1882.
. . . At Montreal we were guests of Dawson, who
wanted to return some hospitality we had afforded
him and his daughter. . . . Dawson has toiled for a
lifetime at Montreal, under many discouragements,
has accomplished a deal, and deserves great credit.
... We had a pleasant time, and this fortnight in
Canada was my only vacation. I went to visit the
grave of Pursh, who died at forty-six. They have put
his bones in their pretty cemetery, and put a neat
stone over them. .. .
Glad you are to send me scraps of one or more
species of Dyer. It should have been a tinctorial
genus, ...
TO R. W. CHURCH.
October 8, 1882.
It is probable that I have not responded by a line
to your letter of April 13, yet I think my wife has
7. 71.] TO R. W. CHURCH. 735
written more than once to the Deanery, and we have
had good accounts of the visit to Italy, which appears
to have been a great enjoyment to all of you. And
now we have the news of H.’s engagement, which
must give you a novel sensation. How time flies and
events develop! It seems but a little while since she
and her sisters were little girls at Whatley. And now,
when this reaches you, a year will have gone round
since we said goodby in London.
I have not much to say nor to show for this year.
Though I have never worked more steadily, and never
with so much concentration, there seems to be little to
show for it. At times I am disheartened, but a hope
as irrepressible as I suppose it is unreasonable and
extravagant bears me up and on. There is, indeed,
a good pile of manuscript to show, but I will not be-
gin printing until I have gone through with the vast
order of Compositz. That may be at Christmas, — I
may say I expect it, — but I never yet came up to
any such expectation. To give you some idea of what
my task is, I hope to send you soon a copy of an ex-
hortation which I read to the botanists at the recent
meeting of our American Association for Advance-
ment of Science at Montreal (in the Queen’s domin-
ions!) This journey to Canada was my only holiday
this past summer; though Mrs. Gray got as much
more, with her brothers and sisters at Beverly, on the
coast ; a bit of country and of country life we are long-
ing to have you see.
The gathering at Montreal was most pleasant, and
we were happily placed as the guests of the president
of the year, Dr. Dawson, principal of McGill College,
at which the sessions were held. Among the foreign
savants, we had . . . Rev. and also M. D. Professor
736 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1882,
Haughton, of Trinity College, Dublin, a man of very
varied knowledge, . . . a somewhat rollicking com-
panion, which, however, did not hinder his preaching
a goodly and serious sermon in the Cathedral on Sun-
day; I believe rather eminent in mathematics, and
who has done a good piece of physico-physiological
work on muscular power. But what took me by sur-
prise was his intense, truly Ivish hatred of England,
and of Gladstone in particular. Probably he did not
like the disestablishment of the Irish church.
And as to Ireland,— what a year you have had,
and only dim hopes that the next will be better; I
do hope Gladstone will hold on and hold out. The
Egyptian affair, as it turns out, must strengthen his
administration not a little. Ever since we were in
Egypt, I have been longing to have England take the
control of that country, as the only hope of the fel-
lahs and Copts, — the only people there for whom one
has any sympathy.
I was to write you about the great brimming St.
Lawrence, and of our trip down it to the Saguenay.
But Mrs. Gray will be writing all that, and also giving
my hearty good wishes to H., dear soul. But I have
not left room even to say how sincerely I remain,
Yours affectionately and truly, Asa Gray.
December 11.
You ought to have heard from me before this, but
you have probably got information indirectly of my
little mishap, which may account for not writing with
my own hand. Not a quite sufficient excuse ; for at
much inconvenience I managed very soon to do some
writing, in awkward fashion, as well as to turn over
specimens ; otherwise I should have been unhappy.
enieagesee eer
7. 12.) TO R. W. CHURCH. T37
Well, hard upon six weeks ago, I managed to break
the top of my right shoulder-blade. It was done
by a bit of carelessness, not to say foolhardiness, by
continuing to do at seventy-two what I have done in
former years, relying too much on my quickness and
sureness of foot in stepping off a horse-car (anglice,
tram) when in motion. In the darkness I supposed
it had slowed up, which in fact it had not, and so a bad
fall. Well, the bone is thought to be well mended,
and I use the arm for certain purposes almost as well
as ever, but cannot yet get my clothes on and off
without assistance. My wife, as you will believe, has
been a capital nurse, and she credits me with a most
unexpected amount of patience.
But if you don’t come soon I shall despair of you.
And Gladstone, I know, will be tempting you; but I
doubt if you will budge, except he would place you in
more sunny quarters than the Deanery,—a _ place
which corporeally I know is not at all good for you,
nor for Mrs. Church.
I read that you have preached a sermon in commem-
oration of Dr. Pusey, at Oxford, which I hope you
will print, and I count on receiving a copy. I prize
very much a copy of a discourse by Dr. Pusey, given
me through Acland when we were there a year and a
quarter ago, addressed to ine in a very flattering way.
By the telegraph we learn you are having a very
severe snowstorm, attended with suffering. We are
now having our sixth of this winter; but we do not
mind it.
I rejoice with you at Gladstone’s success. He and
Dufferin have earned laurels. Let us hope he will
hold out several years yet, and continue at the helm.
But how cordially he is hated!
738 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1882,
Here we get on, prosper, indeed, quite without wis-
dom, or with very little of it. One of these days we
shall need it. There are things I should like to write
about. But my arm is not up to continued use.
Mrs. Gray will send messages propria manu. So,
with my kindest regards to Mrs. Church and all your
happy family, I am affectionately,
ours, Asa GRAY.
TO SIR EDWARD FRY.
BEveRty Farms, December 1, 1882.
We were very sorry to read in the telegraphic news
a few days ago of the destruction of Clevedon Court
by fire, a most sad and unexpected thing, but we hope
not so bad as the brief announcement portends. It
brought back to our memory the delightful afternoon
which Mrs. Gray and I passed there a year and some
months ago. A modern house can be replaced, but
not an old hall like this. It makes us sad to think of
it. Perhaps you can tell us that the loss was exag-
gerated in the telegraphic account.
I am writing from the house of Mrs. Gray’s brother,
on the seashore, where we are passing the “ Thanks-
giving” holiday.“ Thanksgiving Day” is a Puritan
institution, was formerly confined to New England
and the districts settled by New Englanders, and has
been kept from the time of the landing of the Pil-
grims at Plymouth, and is annually appointed by the
governors of these States by proclamation. But
within the last fifteen or twenty years it has become
national, and the day, the fourth or the last Thursday
in November, is announced by a proclamation by the
President. In New England it long took the place
of Christmas, for which you know the Puritans had
i.
i
&
3
i
a
B
£T. 72.) TO SIR EDWARD FRY. 739
no liking, and was the chief family gathering-day as
well as a day of religious service, or at least of politi-
cal sermonizing. But Christmas is completely re-
stored even in New England, though the other holi-
day is not dropped.
The north shore of Massachusetts Bay is very
pretty, the shore backed with woods and rocks, and
sheltered against the northeast bleak winds; and the
situation where we are is one of the choicest. It is
near the mouth of Salem Bay, Salem at the head,
three or four miles above, and the hills beyond close
the view at the west; the peninsula of Marblehead
lies opposite on the south, dividing this water from
that of Boston Bay ; southeast the sea-line is broken
only by three or four low islands. When my good
father-in-law bought the land here, then waste wood
and sheep-pasture, forty years and more ago, it was
two or three hours from Boston. Now a railway
brings it within an hour, and now the whole coast
down to Cape Ann is occupied with what you would
eall villa residences, the grounds of all the most de-
sirable ones reaching to the water, partly with rocky
shores wooded with pine-trees and junipers, partly
with sandy beaches, good for bathing-grounds. This
place combines the two, and is well wooded at the
back, and commands the most beautiful views. Most
of the houses are used only for summer residences ;
but this is oceupied the year round. I have never
been here in the winter before. Winter we are here
in the midst of already, unusually early, and the
ground is white with snow, of which there is usually
little before Christmas. But our winter differs from
yours in its sunshine, the brilliancy and cheer of which
is a good offset for the colder weather, or at least the
lower thermometer.
740 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1882,
A good number of our English acquaintances have
been over this autumn. Dr. and Mrs. Carpenter are
among the last to return. He has just closed a pop-
ular course of Lowell lectures, and they go back a
week or two hence. One hardly knows what brought
Herbert Spencer. He seems most to have enjoyed
Niagara, where he stayed a week. I do not think the
dinner demonstration for him at New York amounted
to very much; nor do I take stock in the statement,
the truth of which he took for granted, that the hair
turns gray in the United States ten years earlier than
in England. I should say the only difference is, that
there is more hair remaining here to turn gray at
middle age or later. Spencer also told us of a dis-
covery he had made, that all Americans had the outer
corners of their eyes lower than the inner, the oppo-
site of our antipodes, the Mongols.
I have just returned from a “sleigh ride.” Snow,
though a nuisance in towns, is a convenience in the
country, greatly facilitating travel, and a drive upon
runners instead of wheels, well wrapped in furs and
with buffalo robes, is much enjoyed.
At the end of August, Mrs. Gray and I went to
Montreal, to the meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, where we were guests
of the president, Dr. Dawson. We made an excursion
to wa, the new seat of government, and another
down the noble St. Lawrence and up its picturesque
tributary, the Saguenay. Otherwise we have been
at home all the summer and autumn. And so we
expect to be all winter, save perhaps a week in Wash-
ington.
... I think I have long owed your son Ports-
mouth a letter, but, though I should be glad to hear
ET. 72.] TO GEORGE BENTHAM. 741
from him, and to know how he is getting on at Ox-
ford, I cannot pay my debt to him to-day. And some
twinges tell me that it is time to spare you.
I will just add that what we hear prepares us to
expect that before this reaches you, or even leaves this
country, we may hear that the good and wise Arch-
bishop of Canterbury will have gone to his rest ; and
Gladstone will have a most responsible as well as the
most dignified position to fill.
TO GEORGE BENTHAM.
CAMBRIDGE, December 17, 1882.
I must not let the New Year come to you without
repairing my delay in the way of letter-writing, and
sending you greeting and good wishes for the season.
Especially I may congratulate you, and felicitate our-
selves, that is, we botanists, that you have, or will
have, brought your opus magnum to a completion!
— proof-reading excepted. A great thing to have done.
I did not make reply to your last of October 14, be-
cause I really could say nothing about the Eriocau-
lonew. .. .
Yes, I have De Candolle on Cultivated Plants, and
am well pleased with it, so far as I have looked it
over.
Thanks for your complimentary mention of my
notice of Darwin. I have since sent you another
brochure, an exhortation to my botanical compatriots
to have more consideration for my time, considering
how little is left, and what a deal of use I have for
it. I can hope only to palliate the evil a little.
Your life has been a most enviable one, in being
able so to arrange and control your time, and with
your indomitable industry, perseverance, and judgment,
742 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1883,
you have turned your opportunities to full account,
winning no end of gratitude and admiration. Now,
do take the relaxation and repose which you have so
completely earned; and take, as you may, great sat-
isfaction and pride in all you have accomplished.
At least your many friends will do so. . .
I did hope to have got to the end of the Conpenie
with the end of 1882; bnt I shall hardly do more
than finish the Helenioidee. As I go on, I study all
Mexican border things, at least these of our North
American collectors.
My health is excellent; so I may fairly hope to get
the North American Composite off my hands and in
print, barring accidents, and I shall be careful of my
bones, and other contingencies. . . .
TO J. D. HOOKER.
May 1, 1883.
. I have not read Carlyle’s Life, by Froude, but
say articles, in which of course the points are
mostly given. All seem to agree that Froude has
blackened the memory of Carlyle irrecoverably, or
rather with rude hand wiped off the whitewash which
covered the blackness. He was a rude, unkempt soul.
From the extracts I have seen, I fancy that Mrs. Car-
lyle’s letters beat Carlyle’s all out for raciness and
pith.
I am content with the Romane correspondence as
R. leaves it, and pleased with Romane’s tone, which
I will try to tell him
I think his first reply was a “beating of the air.”
And for that reason I returned to the charge. His
second is to the purpose. And he seems to feel that
mine was to the purpose
&T. 72.] TO R. W. CHURCH. 743
. As to dear Bentham, his life is the very ideal
of a naturalist’s life, and I have always regarded it
one of the happiest possible and one of the most suc-
cessful. . . . His administration of the Linnean, his
series of addresses, etc., will be looked back to as an
oasis in the desert.
Our spring is late; the winter, or rather the
drought of the previous roieagia has been deadly on
perennials, herbs and shrubs. . .
TO R. W. CHURCH.
May 22, 1883.
. I wish to condole with you over a hardship
which you write of, that of having to write a book on
Lord Bacon. .I quite understand that you should
bemoan your fate at being drawn into that undertak-
ing. I cannot think it at all to your liking. Bacon,
of all people, if the best is to be made of him, I fancy,
should be written of by a worldly-wise, if not a worldly-
minded man. Moreover, I must confess to a heretical
opinion as to another side of Bacon, that in which
English, and all English-speaking, people glory. To
blab it out: I have an ugly notion that he was rather
a sciologist than a man of science, and that he really
did nothing of real consequence for the furtherance
of science ; nothing to be compared with Galileo, a real
father of “ inductive philosophy ” and scientific inves-
tigation —and Pascal. By the way, taking the two
men all round, do you not think a taking parallel
could be run with Bacon and Pascal ?
Now, to change the subject, — what a noble old man
Gladstone is, and what a great name he is going to
leave as a high-minded statesman! I could envy you,
if it were in my way, the privilege of his friendship.
744 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. - [1883,
H. was so good as to write me a charming letter
from her new home, for which please give her my
thanks.
By the way, if you see our observatory director,
Pickering, you will find him an unaffected man, wise
in science above his years.
TO J. D. HOOKER.
CampBrincE, September 3, 1883.
My pear Hooxer,—A letter of yours of July
24 has been on my table a good while, and now to-
day comes yours of August 22. So I am to write
you at once, urged thereto mainly by your quandary
about subspecies,-varieties, and how to manage them in
a popular flora like the British, in which forms need
to be distinguished more than in outlandish floras.
I have a decided opinion as to the form of treat-
ment, and from your letter, as well as I can gather, I
coincide with Ball. At least, I would not have sub-
species. They are, as the saying goes, “ neither flesh,
fowl, nor good red herring.”
ome you would accept as species; make of the
rest varieties, with names.
In characterizing species having marked varieties,
should the specific character comprehend the forms or
varieties, and then there be a “var. a” or type, or
“ typical form ?”
I thought over this when I began my “ Synoptical
Flora,” and concluded that it was best to characterize
the species on its genuine representatives only. Of
course as far as practicable, and indeed for all but
some special points, the characters will, and should,
cover the whole. And at the end of the character, you
have only to add, the type of the species has so and
#1. 72.) ° TO GEORGE BENTHAM. 745
so; then the variety or varieties with the special dif-
foratia:
From pretty large practice I find this works best,
and probably your experience will have brought you
to the same conclusion. . . .
‘Liberavi animum meum,” and it may go for what
you find it worth. . . . I did not know that “ Amer-
icans,” i. e., good Americans, did say, “so and so in-
termarried with so and so.” I see Ravenel, a Caro-
linian, says so.
99
TO GEORGE BENTHAM.
CAMBRIDGE, September 25, 1883.
My pear Bentuam, — I am s0 glad to receive a let-
ter giving so comfortable an account of yourself; glad
also that you would like to hear from me; glad to
announce that, though there are still some genera to
revise, I can tell you that I am about to begin the
printing of the ‘“Synoptical Flora,” containing Capri-
foliaceze - Composite, — which when done, I shall feel
something of the relief you must have had when the
“Genera” was off your hands. That done, I look,
with only that mitigated confidence that becomes an
old man, for a bit of holiday, such as is always re-
invigorating to Mrs. Gray and myself. I am so sorry
you had to take up with a sick-room instead. But as
you are now picking up finely, could you not be made
comfortable and get rid of an English November and
December by revisiting the scenes of your youth in
the south of France? . .
I think I sent you Trambull’s 1 (mostly) and my
1 J. Hammond Trumbull, of Hartford, Conn.; a great authority
on Indian languages and customs, and author of many contributions,
historical and philological. Perhaps the only American scholar able
to read Eliot’s Bible.
746 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. (1883,
annotations on De Candolle’s “ L’Origine des Plantes
Cultivées.” If not, let me know, for you have leisure
to read now.
I am busy with an article on De Candolle’s ‘ Nou-
velles Remarques sur la Nomenclature.” As it may
be my last say on the subject, I am going to make a
rather elaborate article on nomenclatural and phyto-
graphical points, mostly small points, some of which I
should have liked to confer with you about. I would
have done so, but I feared, in the reported state of
your health, to trouble you.
There are two or three small points, about name-
citation and name-making, upon which I shall venture
to criticise the “Genera Plantarum.” But in almost
everything we are in full accord, as you know, and I
wish to impress the accordance upon the younger
botanists of the United States. Nowadays, more than
formerly, they get hold of many books, German and
other — books, many of them, better for substance
than for form; and so our botanists need guidance
and some show of authority.
Engelmann has come home, looking far better than
we expected, or than he thought to be; is visiting Sar-
gent, and will soon come to us. . . .
TO SIR EDWARD FRY.
November 10, 1883.
In a line which I remember adding to Mrs. Gray’s
last letter to Lady Fry I expressed a hope and con-
fident expectation that we should have done with
General Butler as governor of Massachusetts. The
election occurred last Tuesday; an extraordinarily
large vote was cast: Butler was defeated by 10,000,
and an excellent man, a member of Congress from the
EOS 2 eee
xT. 72.] TO R. W. CHURCH. 747
central part of the State, a lawyer, who makes consid-
erable sacrifice in taking the governorship, is chosen
in his place, and there is a majority of two thirds in
both branches of the legislature to support him. We
hope that this makes an end of Butler’s power for
harm, or at least cripples it. He is a desperate
- demagogue.
I doubt if either of the friends you mentioned
came to Cambridge at all. My friend Agassiz had
the pleasure of ‘neGing them at Newport, and was
greatly taken with them. .. .
I am beginning to print the Composite for my
“Flora of North America ;” and am revising for the
last time some of the more difficult and more unsatis-
factory portions. My wife now excuses me to her
friends for outbreaks of ill-humor, the excuse being
that I am at present “in the valley of the shadow of
the Asters.” This is “ sic itur ad astra,” with a ven-
geance. If only I can have done with the printer by
the close of the winter months, with any life left in
me, then we will go in for a holiday.
I am very well, and Mrs. Gray passably so. We
have seen just a little of Matthew Arnold, with wife
and daughter ; shall probably see more of them.
TO R. W. CHURCH.
November 12, 1883.
. I have just seen the first proof of the portion
i - Flora of North America ” that I have been moil-
ing over for so long; and over them and the ever-re-
newed touches to the ever-growing Composite, I may
expect a toilsome winter. That done, I hope about the
time that the clear and biting, but rather enjoyable,
winter subsides into the inclemencies of our early
748 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. (1883,
spring, we hope, if we live and thrive, to take a holi-
day. Just how and where is not yet clear, but I hope
to have something to say of it before I am done with
this letter. Meanwhile I am curious to know if you
have disposed of Bacon. If your essay pleases me as
much as your remarks in your letter to me, I shall
enjoy it. I recant all I wrote you long ago, begging
you would drop him and take up a more congenial
subject. .
Tam ‘ie Duele this evening from hearing Matthew
Arnold read some of his poems to a great hallful of
undergraduates and others, in place ae a lecture which
he was to give, but, poor man! was prevented by his
agent, who seems to be rather his master. He was
sail received ; but one cannot say that he is a very
graceful or a good reader to an audience of eight hun-
dred or a thousand people.
He tells me you offered him an introduction to
me, which he thought he hardly needed, as we had
met him and Mrs. Arnold at a lunch given by Miss
North. We are sorry to hear of the determining
reason of his visit and lecturing tour... . He will
succeed in this, no doubt; but it is a sort of dog’s
life, this lecturing all over the country, four times a
week, at the beck of an agent, who controls all his
movements, often to audiences that will not appreciate
him, the more as what he tells me is true, that he has
no gift as a speaker. But he is pleasant, and will be
most kindly received.
Your Lord Chief Justice was most kindly cared for
and made a most pleasant impression. But in Bos-
ton, besides coming when every one was away who
should have attended to him, he fell, unwisely, into
the hands of . . . Governor Butler, and saw a side of
SE
‘(Peete iat Peete
xT. 73.] TO R. W. CHURCH. 749
American life and manners which may be well
enough for him to see, though we should desire the
contrary, and will add to his rich repertory of stories,
which they say he can tell so well. The day he was
shown over our university he called here, and took a
cup of tea with us. He had recently been visiting
our good friend Lord Justice Fry at Failand, and
spoke of Lord Blachford as his friend and neigh-
are
March 31, 1884.
. . . I have, moreover, another reason for sending
you this line, to thank you for the proof-sheets of the
“Bacon.” I read it at a sitting, one day when I was
too ill for my daily task. I enjoyed the book greatly,
all the more, probably, from my freshness, not having
read anything upon the subject that I now recall
since Macaulay’s essay, ages ago. It is like reading
a tragedy.
What a great failure Bacon was, whenever he was
tried! Poor Essex, hunted to death merely for “ get-
ting up a row,” and Bacon sacrificing him without
compunction, and without seeing that he was prob-
ably made a tool of, merely to serve his personal ad-
vantage! Then the poetical justice, as they call it, —
very prosaic justice, — of his own destruction, by a
bolt out of a clear sky, which an enemy was adroit
enough to direct to his ruin. And poor Bacon with
conscience enough to feel that he deserved it, but not
spirit enough to make a fight. No, if Pope’s fling
was undeserved, as you say, it was because of the
mean and ignoble set around him.
Almost as pitiable and tragic in its way, pitiable in
its true sense, was the upshot of Bacon’s higher and
nobler life, conceiving vaguely and laboring all his
T50 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1884,
days over that which he was unable and incompetent
to bring to the birth. His memory reaping a great
reward of fame for a century or so, and then the con-
clusion reluctantly reached that nothing tangible in
the advancement of Natural Science can be dail
to him. Altogether, what a solemn sermon! It
might be preached from the pulpit of St. Paul’s.
Well, I seem to have attempted sermonizing my-
self, and it is time I stopped.
We join in the thanksgivings you are devoutly
rendering,! and I am always,
Yours affectionately, Asa GRay.
As this is the last letter from Dr. Gray to Dean
Church, to be printed, the occasion is taken to in-
troduce a letter written by Dean Church to Mrs.
Gray some time after the death of his friend, when
acknowledging the receipt of a copy of the “ Scientific
Papers.”
DEAN CHURCH TO MRS. GRAY.
I have to thank you for two volumes of most inter-
esting reading. Besides the interest of the subject
discussed, there is a special cachet in all Dr. Gray’s
papers, great and small, which is his own, and which
seems to me to distinguish him from even his more
famous contemporaries. There is the scientific spirit
in it, but firm, imaginative, fearless, cautious, with
large horizons, and very attentive and careful to
objections and qualifications ; and there is besides,
what is so often wanting in scientific writing, the
human spirit, always remembering that, besides facts
and laws, however wonderful or minute, there are souls
1 The birth of the Dean’s first grandchild.
#7. 73.] TO J. D. HOOKER. 751
and characters over against them, of as great account
as they, in whose mirrors they are reflected, whom
they excite and delight, and without whose interest
they would be blanks. This combination comes out
in his great generalizations, in the bold and yet con-
siderate way in which he deals with Darwin’s ideas,
and in the notices of so many of his scientific friends,
whom we feel that he was interested in as men, and
not only as scientific inquirers. The sweetness and
charity, which we remember so well in living con-
verse, is always on the lookout for some pleasant
feature in the people of whom he writes, and to give
kindliness and equity to his judgment.
And what a life of labors it was! I am perfectly
aghast at the amount of grinding work of which
these papers are the indirect evidence. .. .
For they [his religious views] were a most charac-
teristic part of the man, and the seriousness and
earnest conviction with which he let them be known
had, I am convineed, a most wholesome effect on the
development of the great scientific theory in which he
was so much interested. It took off a great deal of
the theological edge, which was its danger, both to
those who upheld and those who opposed it. I am
sure things would have gone more crossly and un-
reasonably, if his combination of fearless religion and
clearness of mind, and wise love of truth, had not
told on the controversy.
TO J. D. HOOKER.
CAMBRIDGE, June 9, 1884.
Your last is of May 24th from the Camp, and gives
us on the whole better accounts of your invalids.
Bentham at Boultibrooke! I wonder if he would care
T52 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1884,
to have letters from me, or from Mrs. Gray, to whom
he wrote a treasure of a note on the New Year. We
had an idea it might only worry him... .
I wish we could see you at the Camp and among
the heather, and I wish I could form a clear concep-
tion of just how you are placed, taking the Rotherys’
house as a point of departure.
We give you up as to America this year. I would
not have you and Lady Hooker just run over here for
a call; it would be too provoking. Well, let us
plan for January or February next, and Mexico, Ari-
zona, and southern California.
** Man never is, but always to be blest.”
The Joad herbarium was a real bonanza. . .
I must tell of our two weeks’ run, Mrs. Gray and I.
We left the too tardy spring here, one evening; were
the next noon in Washington, where the spring was
in full force and beauty. After two days, left
Washington one morning, followed up the Potomac
River to its very rise in the Alleghanies, and down on
to Mississippi waters before dark; woke near Cincin-
nati, had a pleasant day’s journey to St. Louis, which
we reached before sunset. There had five days,
rather busy ones ; thence a journey of thirty-six hours,
over prairies of Illinois and Indiana to Buffalo, and
to New York city; there two days, and then home. !
Mrs. Gray, thus away from household cares and a
rough air, dropped her cough altogether ; and what
you would think a tiresome piece of journeying brought
us both home much refreshed. .
You remember Henry Shaw, hia park and Mis-
souri botanie garden. The old fellow is now eighty-
' Dr. Gray went to New York to finish his sittings to St. Gaudens
for the bronze bas-relief now in the herbarium at Cambridge
a
x1, 73.) - TO J. D. HOOKER. 753
four. Something induced him to ask my advice, and
to let me know the very ample fortune with which he
is to endow the garden, when he dies. I was in
doubt whether all this was likely to be quite wasted,
or was in condition to be turned to good account for
botany and horticulture when Mr. Shaw leaves it and
his trust comes to be executed. I wished also to see
that dear old Engelmann’s herbarium should be
properly and permanently preserved. So I went on
to St. Louis. Mr. Shaw took me into his counsel and,
without going here into details, without seeing a
chanee for doing much while Mr. Shaw lives, which
cannot be very long, I see there is a grand oppor-
tunity coming, and I think that none of the pro-
visions he has made will hinder the right development
of the Mississippian Kew, which will hardly be “ Kew
in a corner.” And if he follows my advice and mends
some matters, there will be a grand foundation laid.
We are expecting Ball toward the end of the
month. He will have time to travel and botanize
before the Montreal meeting. But I can’t go with
him, nor, perhaps, could I much help him... .
Dr. Gray’s friend of many years, George Engel-
mann, M. D., died in February, 1884. He was a stu-
dent at Heidelberg with Schimper and Alexander
Braun in 1827, and again in Paris, in 1832, with
Agassiz and Braun. He came to America in 1834,
made some journeys on horseback in the West, and
settled as a physician in St. Louis, then a frontier
trading-post, in 1835. He lived to see it become a
metropolis of over four hundred thousand inhabi-
tants. Dr. Gray says in his memoirs of him, “ In
the consideration of Dr. Engelmann’s botanical work
754 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1884,
it should be remembered that his life was that of
an eminent and trusted physician; ... that he de-
voted only the residual hours, which most men use for
rest or recreation, to scientific pursuits. . . . Nothing
escaped his attention; he drew with facility ; and he
methodically secured his observations by notes and
sketches. The lasting impression which he has made
upon North American botany is due to his habit of
studying his subjects in their systematic relations, and
devoting himself to a particular genus of plants until
he had elucidated it as completely as lay within his
power. In this way all his work was made to tell
effectively. . . It shows how much may be done for
science in a ay physician’s hore subsecivee, and in
his occasional vacations. Personally he was one of
the most affable and kindly of men, and was Sai much
beloved as respected by those who knew him
TO SIR EDWARD FRY.
October 10, 1884.
It is quite time that I responded to your kind and
welcome letters. First, let me congratulate myself
upon having youas a colleague in the Royal Society,
in which I think you need not owe your fellowship to
official dignity. I believe you took honors in science
at the university, along with our friend Professor
Flower.
You mentioned your approaching visit, with Lady
Fry, to Lord Coleridge. . . . Lord C., referring to
your visit, sent us very cordial messages in a letter
to my colleague Professor Thayer. He will know that
his host in Boston, General Butler, is one of the can-
didates for the Presidency.
I am, as you may suppose, a bolter from the
£7. 73.] TO SIR EDWARD FRY. 755
Republican presidential nomination. We even hope
to give the electoral vote of Massachusetts, stanchest
of Republican States, to the Democratic candidate.
But I need not bore you with American polities.
Let me say how sorry we were not to see Miss Fox
at our home. It might have been, except for a little
journey we made from Philadelphia, of which I must
tell you more.
I had a mere glimpse of Miss Fox at Montreal,
and a little more of her cousin. She came late to
Philadelphia, where Mrs. Gray (who was not at Mon-
treal) and I had a most pleasant chat with her at a
garden reception. The next day I went out to the
suburban place where she was visiting, and came near
to winning her for our expedition, at least as far as to
Luray cave, and the Natural Bridge in the Valley of
Virginia. But the engagements she had made could
not be reconciled. Her hostess was to take her to
this neighborhood, but too early for us to receive her
here. All good people in this country think so much
of Caroline Fox that they wished to know her sister.
I have not seen the book by Mr. Arthur on differ-
ence between physical and moral laws, and am not
sure that I ever heard of it or of the author. Who is
the publisher? I might find it at the university library.
No, I never had the fortune to see, much less to know
Maurice. Of course I have always known a good deal
about him and of the remarkable influence he ex-
erted, both in person and in his writings, “in which
were some things hard to understand,” such as his
liking for the Athanasian creed, but nothing that was
not most excellent in spirit.
Of course I wellremember Miss Wedgewood; and
we had occasional correspondence up to the time when
756 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1884,
Darwin died, and she, on the part of the family, an-
nounced it to me. [am glad to know that she wrote
the sketch of Maurice in the “ British Quarterly.”
And now about ourselves. I got the Composit
off my mind late in the spring, but not off my hands
until sometime in August. At the end of August and
‘of the pleasant part of the summer here (for it was
delightful in Cambridge, so cool and quiet, and Mrs.
Gray away only for three weeks with her friends on
the coast) I went to the meeting of the British Asso-
ciation at Montreal ; enjoyed it much; read a paper,! a
sort of address, to the botanists coming over to North
America, which the Section seemed to like and voted
to print in extenso. (1 will first print it here, and
send you a copy. Not that there is much novelty in
it, but it may be readable.) I had to leave the meet-
ing after three or four days, and return here; sorry to
leave our friend Mr. Walter Browne ill at the hospi-
tal with typhoid fever. He and his poor wife received
every kind attention, but he died in a few days.
It is agreed that the British meeting was a dis-
tinguished success. It brought over a throng of
English people, and the American savants (I cannot
abide the word “scientists ’”) were in good force. We
were repaid by the large attendance of British Associ-
ation members at Philadelphia, where they contrib-
uted to make our meeting large and notable.
Up to this time the weather was all that could be
wished, cooler, I suppose, than in England at the time.
But that week at Philadelphia was raging. Mrs.
Gray and I were there for the whole week, domiciled
1 “ Characteristics of the North American Flora,” American Journal
of Science, ser. 3, vol. xxviii. p. 323; also in Scientific Papers of
A, Gray, selected by C. S. Sargent.
»
xT. 73.] TO SIR EDWARD FRY. T57
with friends in the heart of the city, —a city which
never cools at night, as it does hereabouts. I bore the
heat well, as my manner is; Mrs. Gray, fairly, by
keeping quiet through the mornings and giving her-
self rather to the evening receptions, which were fine
and most admirably managed. It grew cooler the
moment the week was over and the session ended.
Besides, we moved at once into a cooler region. It
was arranged that I should lead any British botanists
that cared to go on an excursion into the mountains of
Virginia and Carolina. But they were otherways
bound, so that I could take only my friend Mr. John
Ball of London, your fellow F. R. S., taking also
another American botanist, with whom we had visited
these regions more than once before, and, to make it
pleasanter, we added three ladies, wives and daugh-
ters of botanists, Mrs. Gray being one.
Our first day’s journey was to Luray, in the Valley
of Virginia, between the Blue Ridge and the proper
Alleghanies. The next day we visited the Cavern,
which I think is the finest in the world, not forgetting
that of Adelsberg in Styria. It is newly discovered,
with wonderful wealth and beauty of stalactical for-
mations, and is lighted up for visitors with electrical
lights in all the larger chambers. That day we went
on to the Natural Bridge, which we had not seen for
many years. It was grander than I had remembered ;
indeed, it and the scenery around is worth a voyage
and a journey to see. Then we went on to our favor-
ite Roan Mountain, on the borders of North Caro-
lina and Tennessee, one of the highest in the Atlantic
United States, and the finest; the base and sides
richly wooded with large deciduous forest trees in un-
usual variety even for this country, the ample grassy
758 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. (1884,
top (of several square miles) fringed with dark firs
and spruces, and the open part adorned with thou-
sands of clumps of Rhododendron Catawbiense, which
when there last before, late in June, we saw all loaded
with blossoms, while the sides were glorious with three
species of Azalea, not to speak of many other botan-
ical treasures. There, at top and at base, we passed
four busy days. A narrow-gauge railway recently
built, and new to us, reaches to the base of the moun-
tain, up the Doe River, through most picturesque
scenery, Showing to most advantage in the descent.
On our way back we diverged to visit some striking
rock scenery on the upper Kanawha River, and thence
to a mountain-top lower than Roan, but with the
advantage of a charming little lake, with banks all
fringed with Rhododendron maximum and Kalmia,
hanging over the water for a rod or two, except on
the side where the little hotel stands. Well, I have
written a deal here, little as I have managed to tell
you. I think you and Lady Fry should come over and
see for yourselves, just a pleasant summer vacation, if
you can leave Failand for so long.
TO J. D. HOOKER.
September 26, 1884.
So dear Bentham has gone,—not quite filled out
his eighty-fourth year. Well, we could have wished
this year of infirmity and suffering had been avoided.
One would like to say good-evening promptly at the
close of the working-day. But this we cannot order,
so we must accept what comes. We shall miss him
greatly. We have nobody left to look up to. He
seems to have made a wise and good disposition of his
effects.
Rt. 73.] TO J. D. HOOKER. - T59
Your two letters reached us at Philadelphia, on our
return from North Carolina and Virginia. . .
Yesterday we had Sir William ad Lady Picinean: :
To-day Traill and wife (young and bright) of Aber-
deen looked in and Iunched.
I come home to a heap of letters and parcels and
affairs, to keep me busy awhile. .. .
Well, the meeting at Montreal was a success, and
made a pleasant occasion. The influx of visitors
from British Association to Philadelphia made that
meeting very good too. George Darwin I just saw
for a moment at Montreal, and Mrs. Darwin also at
Philadelphia, one evening, — handsome and winning.
I hope you have got the copy of “Synoptical Flora
II.” for your own shelf, through Wesley. Slips and
omissions are already revealing, especially in the
index.
IT am wonderfully strong and well. Mrs. G. well
up to average, both much set up by holiday, of which
mine has now lasted a month.
What a deal you have fished out of Bentham’s
earlier life! I thought you meant Toulouse, not
Tours. Bentham used to speak of Toulouse and that
part of France. . .
Among the snetatits feats of his father was one I
have somewhere heard or read of, that he made a fleet
of articulated transport boats for descending the
crooked channels of the Russian rivers.
I think you might have specified De Morgan’s dis-
covery of Bentham’s contribution to logic, and his
able defense of the reclamation, to which Herbert
Spencer’s “ Verdict” in 1873 was not particularly
1 Sir William Thomson, Lord Kelyin, —the distinguished physi-
cist.
760 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1885,
needed for the establishment of the fact. De Morgan
was not a man to leave his work half done, especially
as against Hamilton.
I only regret that the length to which these most
interesting matters extended stood in the way of your
giving a more detailed account of Bentham’s botani-
cal work, on which another article would be timely.
I must now, before long, attempt something of this,
for the American Academy’s éloge. And I pray you,
if you are not doing it yourself, to send me hints and
suggestions. Sheet full, and I will not begin another
to-day, but add only my wife’s love to you and Lady
Hooker.
January 9, 1885.
The souvenir of dear Bentham has come to hand,
is in its place on my table, and the first use I make
of it, now in position, is to write to you this letter of
thanks, — to you for awarding it to me, and to dear
Lady Hooker for so promptly forwarding it. The
stand is a beautiful piece of marble, bearing its two
inkstands.! Was there ever anything to occupy the
sunken area between them? .. .
Of myself I have not much to write. The pros-
pect of getting off for the latter part of winter has
just prevented my settling down to the “ Flora,” and
I have found plenty else to keep me actively em-
ployed, mainly with a revision of some boragina-
ceous genera, now in printer’s hands, which I hope,
while it unsettles old work, will settle it better and
permanently, as far as anything we do can be said to
be lasting.
! The inkstand is now placed in the library of the herbarium with
Sir William J. Hooker’s hand-glass, so much used by Dr. Gray.
mT. 74.] TO J. D. HOOKER. 761
I am well, — can hardly be said to need the holiday
we have determined on. . . . We shall benefit much,
I think probable, by getting off to meet the spring,
avoiding February-April here, which are the only
drawbacks to a climate of the best: for you know I
do not at all dislike summer heat.
We have not troubled ourselves much as to where
we would go. But now it does seem that we will go
to the southern part of California, if possible by the
southern Arizona route, which is near the Mexican
boundary, and must be best for winter, and to return
by the route through the northern part of Arizona,
which should be pleasant in the latter part of April.
Oh, that you and Lady Hooker could be with us... .
And we shall be lonely without you on our travels,
and feel that “that great principle of the survival of
the fittest’ has been woefully violated. .. .
Crry or Mexico, Sunday, February 22, 1885.
Your letter of January 20, forwarded from Cam-
bridge, overtook us at San Antonio, Bexar. We
left home February 3, in bitter cold, for St. Louis,
where I had an interview with old Shaw, and heard
him read his rearranged will, which is satisfactory,
as it will allow his trustees, and the corporation of
Washington University there, to turn his bequests to
good account for botany ; will be an endowment quite
large enough for the purpose.
Thence, rail— two nights and a day —to Mobile,
where it was warm and springlike, but no flowers out,
barring an early violet. Thence to New Orleans, which
has a great exposition and a crowd, and where, in a
sudden change to cold, I caught a dreadful cold. It
began with such a hoarseness that, going, Mrs. G. and
762 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1885,
I, to dine with Dr. Richardson (son-in-law of Short),
where we met your and Dyer’s friends, Mr. and Mrs.
Morris! of Jamaica, I was taken speechless. I was
only for a few hours at the Exposition (I hate such),
but Mrs. Gray went a second time to see Mexican
things. Dr. Farlow, joining us at New Orleans,
brought, to our surprise, passes for us to go by the
Mexican Central Road to the city of Mexico and back
to El Paso (the junction with the road to California),
and we decided to undertake it. One day and a night
took us to San Antonio, Texas, where we stayed Sat-
urday, Sunday, and Monday, till evening, trying to
recover from our colds, driving over the country
through chaparral of mesquite bushes (Prosopis)
and opuntias. When we awoke next morning we
were coursing along the rocky banks of the Rio
Grande del Norte, mounting into a high region more
arid still, if possible, the only flowers out a Vesicaria ;
and descending into a great cattle ranch region we
reached El Paso at 3.30 a.M.; got to bed again; had
the day there and on the other side of the river, at
El Paso del Norte, in the Mexican State of Chihua-
hua, whence at evening we took our Pullman for
three nights and two days’ journey to this place,
through Chihuahua, Zacatecas, Aguas-Caliente, Leon,
ete., reaching here yesterday morning at 8.30. We
are comfortably placed in the Hotel Iturbide. Farlow
and I have looked about somewhat, though I am still
suffering from eatarrh and cough; Mrs. Gray laid
up with hers. This afternoon a Mexican gentleman
to whom we took letters called and drove Farlow and
me out to Chapultepec, whence a most magnificent
view of the whole Valley of Mexico and the surround-
? Daniel Morris, assistant director of the Royal Gardens, Kew.
&T. 74. ] TO J. D. HOOKER. 763
ing mountains, including Popocatapetl and its more
broadly snowy companion, —with its more difficult
name, meaning White Lady, —at this season always
with cloudless tops. The cypresses of Chapultepec
are glorious trees, plenty of them, full of character,
and of a port which should help to distinguish the
Mexican species from the North American. I wish
you could see them. And such old trees of Schinus
molle, the handsomest of trees either old or young,
the old trunks wonderfully bossed. Is it a native of
Mexico? I thought only of Chili. But it is well at
home here.
Such yucca trees as we have seen on the way here,
with trunks at base two or three feet in diameter,
weirdly branched, looking like doum palms. Opun-
tias of two or three arborescent species, some huge,
and other cacti not a few.
I have still to compare Arizona with the plateau of
northern Mexico. But I see they are all pretty
much one thing. .. .
OrizABA, February 27, 1885.
Since my former sheet, Farlow and I have been
mousing about the city of Mexico, I coughing most of
the time, in a clear, dry air and nearly cloudless sky,
weather which should be most delightful, but some-
how it is bad for the throat (for the natives as well
as for us), and the rarefied air puts one out of breath
at a little exertion; mornings and evenings cool
and fresh, the midday warm, in the sun trying... .
Called in a physician, a sort of medical man to
American embassy, who came here with Maximilian,
and stayed. Very intelligent. Ordered us to come
here as soon as Mrs. Gray could travel. Here only
T64 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1885,
4,028 feet and a warmer damp air. Well, we tried
it yesterday ; had to leave city of Mexico at 6.15 A. M.,
our hotel at 5.30 cold, no breakfast ; had to travel till
ten or nearly before we could get even a decent cup of
coffee, at junction of road to Vera Cruz and Puebla,
and after rising to 8,333 feet in getting out of the
Valley of Mexico; but at 1 p.M., at Esperanza, in the
Tierra Frias, had a capital dinner, and met train
from Vera Cruz. Here pine-trees on the hills all
round us, two species. Soon begins the descent and
a complete change of air, the other side all dry and
horrid dust, making our catarrh worse than ever ;
now the moisture from the Gulf of Mexico makes all
green; the road by skillful engineering pitches down
4,000 feet to this, the greater part of the descent all in
eight or nine miles of straight line as the bird flies.
In all the Valley of Mexico and to the north of it
really nothing in blossom yet, all so dry, except Sene-
cio salignus, if I rightly remember the name, a shrub
of 1-4 feet, just becoming golden with blossoms.
But the moment we began the descent all was flow-
ery, two species of Baccharis, Eupatoria, Erigeron
mucranatum (so much cultivated under the false
name of Vittadenia triloba), Leeselix species, Arbutus,
(Xalapensis) in bud, and many things of which we
shall know more when we return over the route. . .
Very comfortable hotel here. Botteri! left an éléve
here who knows something of botany, but lives out of
reach on a hacienda. We found a garden combined
with a small coffee plantation. The proprietor thereof,
speaking a little French, has filled his ground with a
1 Matteo Botteri, died in 1885. Sent to Mexico rtd London —
tural Society. Made fine collections, especially about Orizaba,
he settled.
rT. 74.) TO J. D. HOOKER. 765
lot of things that will stand here. It is just in me-
dias res, two hours below Tierra Frias, two above (or
at Cordoba, only seventeen miles, but 2,000 feet
lower) true tropical. Papaya fruits here, also Persea
gratissima, ete. And the oranges are delicious. I
have passed the whole morning with the garden man,
while Farlow went up a small steep mountain, and
brought back various things. We shall drive this
afternoon to the Cascade of Rincon Grande (cas-
cades are most rare in Mexico).
The air here suits us; shall try to leave our coughs
here and at Cordoba below.
On the way here had views of Popocatapetl and the
more beautiful and diversified Iztaccihuatl from the
sides, and wound round the base of Mt. Orizaba. A
true Mexican town this. Mrs. Gray enjoying sights
from the window; will be able to drive out this after-
noon, though the clouds are sinking too much and
mist gathering, a great contrast to the city of Mexico.
P. M.—We went, but saw the falls (very pictur-
esque) in a wet mist, and for botany got a lot of sub-
tropical Mexican plants, the like of which I never
saw win fore: among Composite, Lagascea
(large heads), Tree Vernonias of the Scorpioides
set, Calea, Andromachia, ete., ete.
Corposa, March 2, 1885.
. To continue. On Saturday, a fine and sunny
morning, Farlow and I drove off for the Cascade of
Barrio Nuevo, almost as beautiful as the other, and
had a long morning in clambering and collecting. In
the grounds on the way are planted trees of a Bom-
bacea, in flower before the leaf, probably Pachira. The
peak of Orizaba shows as a narrow streak of white
766 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1885,
over a near mountain, from the windows of our
room ; but by going half a mile east the whole comes
out splendidly.
Sunday morning we were comparatively quiet, but
at 3.50 Pp. M. we were off for Cordoba, less than
an hour distant by rail, and 2,000 feet lower. >>> > 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.