Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/397

 GKAY

GRAY

an lierbarium, and had entered into a corre- spondenne with Dr. John Torrey. In 1831 he was invited to deliver a course of botanical lectures at tiie Fairfield medical college, and several mouths later was a)jpointed pi-ofessor of natural sciences at a school kept by a Mr. Bartlett in Utica, N. Y. Until 183.5 he taught chemistry, miueralogj-, and botany to boys, devoting summer vacations to bjtanizLng in central New York, northeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In the sunmier of 1834 he took Professor Hadley"s place at Ham- ilton college, Clinton, N Y., and gave a course of instruction in botany and mineralogy. The fol- lowing winter he obtained leave of absence from the Bartljtt school to assist Dr. John Torrey dm-- in.;a course of chemical lectures at the College of pliysicians aul surgeons in New Y'ork city. In December, 1834, he read before the New York Lyceum of natural history, a paper on the new or rare plants of the state of New York, which at- tracted the attention of scientists and led to a long series of contributions to the American Jour- nal of Science. In 1835, while spending the sum mer at his father's farm, lie planned and partly wrote Elements of Botany which was piiblished in 1836 and brought him §150. This book was adopted in schools and for a long time was the only text book on botanj' in popular use. In the autunm of 1836 he became curator of the Ly- ceum of natural history in New York. The same year he was appointed botanist of the Wilkes expl(jring expe lition to the South Pacific, but owing to the delay in starting the expedition he resigned the position in 1838 to accept the chair of botany an! zoology in the University of Mich- igan. The trustees gave him a year's leave of absence in Europa with a salary of S1500 for that year and put into his hands S.5000 with which to lay a foundation for their general library. At Glasgow he was the guest of Dr. (later, Sir) Wil- liam J. Hooker, who gave him letters of intro- duction to several eminent European botanists. On his return home the University of Michigan gave hiiu another furlough withovit pay. and he turned his attention to the writing of i)arts III. and IV. of "Flora of North America," parts I. and II. of which had been published in 1838 in collaboration with Dr. John Ton-ey. In the sum- mer of 1841 he went on a botanical tri]) up the valley of Virginia to the moimtains of North Carolina, and in January, 1842, he made his first visit to Boston, Mass. During this visit he dined with President Quincy of Harvard, who later used liis influence to secure the appointment of Dr. Gray to the Fisher chair of natural history. In 1842 Dr Gray resigned hjs position at the Univer- sity of Michigan and in the spring of the same year entered upon his duties at Harvard uni- versity, where he remained tluring the rest of

his life, being relieved by the appointment of George L. Goodale as a.ssociate in 1872; Charles S. .Sargent to the care of the botanic garden in 1873, and Dr Sereno Watson as curator of the herbarium in 1874. He created the botanical department of Harvard university and in 1864 presented to the imiversity his herbarium of about 300,000 specimens and library of 2200 volumes on condition that a fireproof buUding be pro- vided for their reception, which building was erected by means of a donation from Nathan- iel Thayer of Boston. Dr. Gray was elected a fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences in 1841 ; was its president in 1863- 73 ; was also president of the American associa- tion for the advancement of science in 1871, and in 1874 succeeded Louis Agassiz as a regent of the Smithsonian institution. He was one of the charter members of the National academy of sciences, and besides his connection with learned societies in the United States he was elected a corresponding or an honorary member of the more prominent scientific societies of Europe. In 1848 he was married to Jane, daughter of Cliarles Greely Loring of Boston, Mass. The degree of A.M. was conferred on him by Har- vard in 1844. and that of LL. D. by Hamilton in 1864, by Harvard in 187.5, by McGill in 1884, and by the Univei'sity of Michigan in 1887. Dur- ing his last visit to Europe in 1887 he received from Cambridge the degree of D.Sc, from Edin- burgh that of LL. D., and from Oxford that of D.C. L. Dr. Gray reported on the collections of the U.S. government exploring expeditions, including those made by the Wilkes (18o4) Perry (18-57) and Rogers (18.59) expeditions. He con- tributed largely to periodicals, was on the editorial staff of the American Journal of Science for years, and wrote biographical sketches of many emi- nent scientists. His numerous publications in- clude: Elements of Botany (1836); the unfinished Flora of Xor/li America, the publication of which was begun in 1838 by himself and Dr. Torrey and in which the classifications were made ac- cording to the natural but hitherto disregarded basis of affinity; Manual of the Botany o/ tite Nortliern United States (1848, 5th ed., 1867) ; Genera oftlie Plants of the United States, illustrated (2 vols., 1848-49) ; Botany of the United States Pacific Exploring Expedition (18.54); First Lessons in Botany and Vetjetable Physiology (18.57); How Plants Grow (18.58) ; Free Examination of Daricin\i Treatise (1861) ; Field. Forest and Garden Botany (1868); //eno Plants Behave (1872); Danciniana (1876); Synoptical Flora of North America (1878, 1834) ; Strnctnral Botany or Oreianofiraphy with basis of Morjiholofiy (1879) ; and Xatural Science and Eelirjion (1880). For complete bibliography of Dr. Gray see the American Journal <f Science