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 thought desirable to try the longer voyage for Mrs.
Gray’s health.
Dr. Gray renewed acquaintance 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.
GHENT, BELGIUM, 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 engagement 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 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
disappointment, 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 desire, the descendants of old Peter Collinson,[1] 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 affectionately after yourself, and asked about all
your family....
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,[2] J.’s cousin, who is making with two friends a
pleasant and profitable pedestrian excursion in England.[3] 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 Linnæan Club to Hertford; saw a
great Pinetum, 600 species of Coniferæ, etc., and the Panshanger Oak. (I
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 Krameria, and said I must be right. He formerly
unequivocally referred it to Polygalaceæ. 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 curiosities, we have all day been
exploring, till six o’clock, when we came on twenty-eight miles further
by railway to the famous and more lively town of Ghent,--where I have
been running about till the dusk arrived, and must now to bed, as we
have to finish Ghent to-morrow before dinner, and go on to Antwerp
afterwards, 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 Professor 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 comfortably at Hotel du Parc, Wednesday
evening, overlooking the Place Verte, our windows commanding a near and
most advantageous 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 compared 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 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 mountains) and the Godesberg, etc., from the
professor’s windows and the Botanic Garden; the museums rich and
curious, and parts of the old château in which they are (now surrendered
to the university) not less so. The botanical professors, Treviranus[4]
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[5] 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 ourselves, 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....
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 early 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;[6]
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
Switzerland, 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 Freiburg (in the Breisgau) that evening, reaching
it in the rain....
Professor Braun,[7] the brother of the first Mrs. Agassiz, was very kind
to us. He is a very interesting 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 Höllenthal (French, Vallée d’Enfer), a rocky and wooded gorge of
very striking scenery; wild and majestic, rather than terrible, as its
name imports....
In the afternoon visited the cathedral, 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 Bâle to Bienne (fifty-six miles) in a diligence,
from eight A.M. to five P.M., through the Münster Thal, the grandest and
most picturesque scenery of the Jura.
Wednesday, a ride of three hours along lakes of Bienne and Neuchâtel
brought us to Neuchâtel at eleven o’clock A.M. ... Professor Godet,[8]
who received me most cordially, took me (with Mr. Coulon) up the
Chaumont, 2,500 feet; but the Alps were obscured 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 à Bot. All asked
after Agassiz with much interest. Excursions are planned for us when we
return....
* * * * *
Dr. Gray enjoyed the visit to Geneva, where he renewed 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.
He returned to England, going down the Neckar by steamboat to
Heidelberg, then down the Rhine, and through Holland, where he saw
Miquel[9] in Amsterdam, rambling with him on a fête-day through the
streets at evening, enjoying the queer sights; went to Leyden, meeting
De Vriese,[10] 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 Linnæus. Blume[11] he missed, but he saw Siebold’s[12]
collection of Japanese curios, then most rare. He took steamer from
Rotterdam 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
Expedition, 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 them the authoress, Mrs. Archer Clive, who was
very kind.
He left Pontrilas early in December to make a visit, at Dublin, to his
friend Professor Harvey, to stay in 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 increased 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.
CUMBERLAND PLACE, 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 unguarded 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 recovered 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, able to walk without
difficulty; and to-day, just four weeks after the accident, I 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 conferred upon me in choosing me as
one of their corresponding 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 compliments 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 and profitable labor at Pontrilas,
and Mr. Bentham has rendered me invaluable assistance.
Mrs. Gray joins me in the expression of kind remembrances 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 working in the herbarium
almost every day, there was much meeting of old friends, and of many of
the men distinguished in botany. Robert Brown, with his keen observation
and dry wit, he saw constantly at the British Museum, Dr. Wallich,[13]
Mr. Miers and many others. There was some social visiting in London and
the neighborhood. Mr. Abbott Lawrence was then American 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 Boughton, 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 acquaintances. He there first met Dean Church, then a
fellow of Oriel, who had him to dine. He also dined with Mr.
Congreve[14] at Wadham; met Maskeleyne, who showed him “some fine
talbotypes, which are a sort of daguerreotype on paper, and have a
beautiful effect for landscapes and buildings.” Breakfasted 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 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, etc. 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 beautiful bridges and stately
buildings. Another traveling acquaintance met in the street, recalling
an experience on the Furca, 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[15] 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.
5 CUMBERLAND PLACE, KEW, April 14, 1851.
For myself I am glad that I am perfectly recovered from the effects of
my accident, and am as active as 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 1st of June, at least. The only drawback is
that we thereby lose the society of Mr. and Mrs. Bentham, who mean to
come to London early next month....
Sir William Hooker is not yet well, though better than he was last
winter. I have presented your kind messages, for which he sends best
thanks, and is rejoiced 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 might pass through Geneva again
this summer; but that is not now possible. The sea, however, is not so
broad as formerly. Believe me to remain,
Very faithfully and affectionately yours,
ASA 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,
etc., and made the acquaintance of M. and Mme. Vilmorin, 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. V. made all the drawings. Two
separate days were passed at Verrières, their country home, an old villa
belonging formerly to the Duchesse de la Vallière. And here to meet him
came old Michaux[16] 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.
François Delessert[17] extended pleasant hospitalities, and Mr. Webb was
very kind and cordial.
It was during the time of the Republic, Louis Napoleon, president, and
there were some grand fêtes 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 BENTHAM,--I cannot give your message to Weddell, for he is on his
way to the Peruvian cinchona forests, to remain a year,--I suppose on a
commission 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,[18] Naudin,[19] and
Trécul[20] are in charge, under Brongniart and Jussieu. Webb is well,
and so is Gay, who is quite happy, living 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, etc.,
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 Fendler’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 succeeded in his excellent and
lucrative professorship either by Grisebach[21] or by our excellent
friend 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, addressed to Giessen or
Berlin.
Prince Paul’s sensitive branches of Mimosa catching 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 elegance than our Parisian quarters, but
decidedly more comfort. The only thing that distresses us is, that we
cannot translate dear 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 letters home, we went up to
London, shopped, etc., 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 convenient 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 Waterloo 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? 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 expense 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 conveyances,” 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 scattered 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 ponderous 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 excellent 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.
On our way down the nave, we stopped for a moment 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 expectation. 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 patriotism 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 quarter 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.”
Monday we went to the Zoölogical 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,[22]
just arrived, who is quite a human and a very respectable grave old
fellow. We saw the hippopotamus, too, but he lay 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 past four, no great
sight, as they behaved extremely proper, and then we hurried 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, sculpture, books, antiquities, etc., etc.
Had 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 singular-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 Association at Ipswich,
where Prince Albert came for a few days. Dr. Hooker and Dr. Harvey (who
had 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 Ireland, and Dr. Gray went to
Pontrilas to say goodby 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 collections constantly coming in, the work on the Exploring
Expedition, the keeping his various botanical text-books in their new
editions up with the advancing 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, “I 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 Kew.
Dr. Gray was an immense worker. After his morning mail was received and
looked over, that he might answer any imperative questions, he took
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
daylight.
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 temperament, and when he did take
a holiday, he took it heartily. His rest and recreation were in
journeys, longer or shorter, and every two or three years some long
outing would be taken, to give him the needed refreshment. 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 “Plantæ Wrightianæ,” the first part of which (as I work
in so much general matter, especially Tex-Mexican), to the end of
Compositæ, will 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 Hepaticæ....”
Poor fellow! as I wrote you before, he lost his wife while I was away,
and was overwhelmed, as she was everything 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 to me....
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 letter 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 saying to myself, Now if I only had Mr.
Wright’s list with localities, I should do very well. And when my
letters came from the office, yours, with said list inclosed, 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 very busy with college work, for a month longer, and with the
Garden; and the Exploring Expedition work has been pressing me, and
still will. But I shall somehow distribute your 1851 collection very
soon, name them up to the end of Compositæ, 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 Apetalæ 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 “Plantæ
Wrightianæ.” Copies are already in England, and I am about to dispatch
many to France, Germany, etc.
You are indeed an invaluable collector, though you do like to grumble
now and then, and I hope the Indians 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 I
can get on with fewer irons in the fire.
I fear you are driven up hard also, by the sickly season and cholera. I
hope you may be able to give up practice by and by....
I have had for a good while a misunderstanding with Captain Wilkes
about my work for the Exploring Expedition 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 “Plantæ Wrightianæ,” 1851 collection, up to end of Compositæ,
old stopping-place, but must dash beyond that soon....
TO W. J. HOOKER.
CAMBRIDGE, 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
Trichomanes, 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 discovery, 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 specimens.... I have not specimens enough of T. radicans 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 this group, is a matter
of moment to us, and worthy of a published notice.
I should not be so greatly surprised now if Hymenophyllum ciliatum,
credited by Willdenow to Virginia, 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....
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 determination,
but we have strongly urged the journey ever since the death of their
dear little boy, the little Benjamin, 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 confident 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 wish 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 yourself....
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, “Plantæ Wrightianæ,” is now almost all printed, and
contains many novelties. I never had a collection so rich in entirely
new things.
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.
“It never rains but it pours” is an old adage suitable to this meridian
and illustrated by what I now send you, namely, a second Trichomanes
from Alabama! discovered by the indefatigable Thomas M. Peters, Esq., of
Moulton, who (and not Mr. Beaumont, it appears) was the first finder of
Trichomanes radicans 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.” ...
* * * * *
In 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 DEAR MR. CHURCH,--Since I heard, which I did first from Mr.
Clough,[23] that you were about to marry and take charge of a parish, I
have been longing every time I wrote to England to add a line expressing
my most sincere congratulations. I hope you 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 parishioners, where you will be very happy
and very useful.
Still let us hope that the visit to Cambridge, New England, is only
deferred, to afford us a double gratification. I think you can sometimes
leave your parish for three months, or even more with special leave, and
the voyage is becoming shorter and cheaper every year.
I have looked through the “Times,” which I see regularly through the
kindness of a friend, thinking that I might perchance see your
appointment, presentation, 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 Committee 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 making your acquaintance until the last moment of his
short stay.
Mr. Clough brought me a letter from Maskelyne of Wadham 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.
If 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
parish, just drop me a line to say where you are, and how old your
parish church is; for hankering after antiquities is, as an Oxford man
told me, a great failing of Americans.
TO A. DE CANDOLLE.
CAMBRIDGE, March 28, 1853.
MY DEAR FRIEND,--I am all the more glad that I can 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 Switzerland.
Ordinarily neither you nor I would be at all solicitous for such
recognition. I care not to have them except where (as in the Linnæan
Society of London, the French Academy, and your own society of Geneva) I
well know the nominations are strictly and conscientiously weighed, and
where the list to be 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 academy, the oldest but one in America, was in
a state of inactivity and hebetude since the death of its former
president, Bowditch, till 1843, the year after I came to Cambridge, when
it was determined, chiefly by some of my colleagues in Cambridge, to
restore it to life and vigor. It is now full of life. The number of its
foreign 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
publications of this institution. It is on the point of issuing another
splendid volume; and at least one a year will continue to be issued.[24]
Liberal in its distribution, the Smithsonian Institution 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 Genève, to vote its series of memoirs to the
Smithsonian Institution. 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, and 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 interchanges
(at no small expense), would freely accord the earlier volumes of its
memoirs, on your proposition....
Dr. Harris[25] 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 Exploring Expedition,” the manuscript
and the drawings are ready up nearly to the Leguminosæ; and the
printing, which is not under my control, is about to commence. The work
will probably make three quarto volumes and 300 folio plates. I shall be
sure to have a copy to send you. As to the specimens, there are few
duplicates; 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.
My wife and I well remember what a charming place Vallon is, and retain
pleasant memories of our trip to the Salève 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,
ASA GRAY.
TO GEORGE ENGELMANN.
CAMBRIDGE, July 14, 1853.
MY DEAR ENGELMANN,--This cover has been addressed 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 Rosaceæ (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 I can. There is next some tough work in Myrtaceæ and
Melastomaceæ; but as to the latter Naudin 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 Monopetalæ.
Agassiz returned most delighted with his visit to you, and we talked
much of you....
I 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 Malvaceæ, and probably more in Compositæ.
If 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 Cactaceæ in collection Exploring Expedition,--a
drawing or two. I shall send them on to you presently....
I grieve to tell you that Adrien de Jussieu is dead. Cancer in the
stomach, his tedious malady proves to have been. It makes a deep
impression on the scientific 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 succeeded the late Achille
Richard at L’Ecole de Médecine. 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 Silphium laciniatum, terebinthinaceum, and
pinnatifidum.
He agreed there was no direction to be made out, one way more than
another. The cauline leaves all tend to become vertical (as in several
other Compositæ), 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 genera of Myrtaceæ 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 found some Fouquiera seedlings up in the Garden. I am right about
it; not Torrey. The leaf is not axillary and its petiole inclosed in the
spine; but the spine is a hardened inferior portion of the petiole that
persists, and from which the rest falls away clean....
TO W. J. HOOKER.
CAMBRIDGE, August 3, 1853.
MY DEAR SIR WILLIAM,--I will endeavor to get some account of Shakerdom
for you. They are a queer people indeed.
Manilla paper[26] is made of old manilla rope, which 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, etc. But the
climate makes our countrymen indolent there, and forgetful. I 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 venation) 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 botanologists 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 collate, and
perhaps figure it, as well as the ordinary A. montanum.
I was grieved to hear of the death of Adr. de Jussieu, with whom I have
had a very pleasant correspondence 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....
We remember with interest that dear Harvey sets out to-morrow on his
long voyage.
TO R. W. CHURCH.
Christmas Eve, 1853.
MY DEAR MR. CHURCH,--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
unaccountably 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 (I 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 elementary 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, etc., all
dreadfully 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 before 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.
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 Movement
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.
Any 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 before 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 nothing 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
Leguminosæ (excl.). Meanwhile, to look over Brackenridge’s manuscript of
the Filices, to turn a loose ungrammatical lingo into English, and his
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 Exhibition. Returning, I had to
bear my part in a 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 specimens of everything you see there....
CAMBRIDGE, February 19, 1854.
Sinner that I am, I have four letters of yours unanswered; 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 postpone 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.
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[27] called on me and offered his
plants collected under Bartlett. I have written out the greater part up
to the end of Compositæ, 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 Compositæ, and the striking things beyond, and
afterwards I may lick up the rest in the general continuation of “Plantæ
Wrightianæ,” etc.
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 Pedro. 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 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 cruise. 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, etc.;
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 Algæ? Look out for them hereafter.
When you are on surveying-ground, you may probably 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.
TO W. J. HOOKER.
CAMBRIDGE, March 28, 1854.
I send a glass bottle filled with 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 Wellingtonia tree, which I
estimate to be not older probably 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., Taxodium 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 people are behaving very badly about Cuba, but
it is mostly talk for effect, and will lead to nothing, we hope.
TO GEORGE THURBER.
CAMBRIDGE, 20th April, 1854.
DEAR THURBER,--When yours of the 17th arrived, and till now, I have been
too much absorbed in college duties to consider it, as I now rapidly
will.
Ranunculus 441. I never liked naming a plant after a person who has had
nothing to do with it, as collector, describer, 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 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 anglicize into “the handy
Thurber,” but then the hand 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.
lævis; or, as I believe you have not a strong beard, T. imberbis. But,
on the whole, perhaps it would be as well to indicate merely the nearest
affinity of the genus, and call 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 DEAR FRIEND,--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 Exploring
Expedition in the South Seas,” which has been more than a year in
printing. This 4th volume (777 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 annual envoi of the Smithsonian
Institution.
The atlas, of 100 plates in folio, which should accompany this volume,
is by no means ready, owing 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 conveyance.
I have now, indeed, some hopes that the “Flora of North America” may
soon be carried through the Gamopetalæ, I elaborating at the same time,
in a general memoir, the Gamopetalæ 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
Journal,” 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 opposite 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 printing 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 “Epistolæ Linnæano-Jussieuanæ,” with our late friend’s notes, etc.,
the last scientific work of his too short life.[28] I intended to send
you a copy myself, but at the request of M. Ramond 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 American Academy” also.
My daguerreotype of M. Jussieu 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 materials (notices, éloges, etc.), from
which I could prepare 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
paragraphs, which appear as if written by the editor of 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 DEAR SIR WILLIAM,--The inclosed, from our good friend Dr. Short,[29]
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, 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. Smith was pleased with the live plants I sent. Please
remind him that I should like to share in the distribution of seeds this
spring. And if I find time to make out a short list, I may ask for some
live plants again....
I have 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-Washingtonia).
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.[30] ...
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 bespoken photographic
likenesses, on paper, of their professors,--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 getting 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 botanists 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.
It is now time my letter was off,--when lo and behold!--
Yesterday morning I was sitting here busy with steady work and not
expecting much interruption; now, this evening, my passage is taken, my
trunk packed, I am hurriedly closing up affairs, and to-morrow morning
go on board steamer America and sail for Liverpool. I have to go and
look after my brother-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, perhaps not so long; a week in Paris, another at Kew, a few days
more in England; this must repay me (besides 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 accomplished, i. e., published.
Of my “Plantæ Novæ Thurberianæ” and “Notes on Vavæa and Rhytidandra” 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. I am preparing a
new edition of the “Manual of Botany of the Northern United States,” and
a new elementary work[31] 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 “Plantæ Wrightianæ” with it. I have
determined Berlandier’s plants up to end of Compositæ. 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 a few 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 family,
especially among the poor and the distressed.... She 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
relative.
I wrote you a line, with some inclosures, while at sea, and posted it at
Halifax, N. S....
When I send the package from Holton,[32] I wish 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 promised, 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 cordially 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 traversed 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 from the obloquy
and wrong heaped upon it by us of the North, and by England. Save the
mark!
At any rate, her journal will be piquant.
I 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 October 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 England. 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. The naturalists at Paris were en vacance, and mostly
away. I saw only Brongniart, Spach, Gay, Dr. Montagne, and Trécul (who
sent, I believe, some pamphlets 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 command 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 insisted upon taking me over to see the Cactus house,
and all through it, so that I might tell you what a mass of Cacteæ there
are there; and he will be much pleased to have you work among them. He
spoke about his Cuscuteæ, 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 Kentucky 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.
About Fouquiera; I have examined it here repeatedly on the live plant,
which every year prolongs its main axis an inch or two. And I 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 Botanique 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, etc.
TO A. DE CANDOLLE.
October 27, 1855.
Your welcome letter of the 7th 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. Boissier 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 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 interesting 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 details 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 generally 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 collected 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 (Cucurbitæ).
Dr. Hooker had written to me, eulogizing your work in the highest terms.
I missed seeing him when in England.
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 printing of the 2d edition of
my “Manual of the Botany of the Northern States.” ...
In consequence of your book, I shall take pains to classify the
introduced plants, according to the degree of naturalization, etc.
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 DEAR SIR WILLIAM,--Holton is bringing out a book upon New Granada
which will be interesting....
The cypress knee sent was the best and handsomest I 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 physiologically it would
be well to show the formation in its various stages....
I want to send you a book by a young friend of ours, Olmsted, on the
seaboard slave States,[33] an admirable volume, full of information, and
lively withal. 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 transmission 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, intending to
botanize there some months. Finding himself 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 you; 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 “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 government 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,[34] James,[35] etc., 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 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 much 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 gratify,
Your affectionate and faithful
A. GRAY.
TO JAMES D. DANA.
December 13, 1856.
MY DEAR DANA,--I duly received the sheets I asked for.
The right way to bring a series of pretty interesting general questions
towards settlement is perhaps in hand (though I do not expect myself to
bring anything 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, etc., 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, distribution, what system in
natural history is, etc., certain inferences are slowly settling
themselves in my mind, or taking shape; but on some of the most vexed
questions 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 77 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 questions of unity of
birthplace and unity of parentage....
As to the physical question, surely you do not suppose 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 abatement of health or vigor!
Did you ever consider the question of the cause of deterioration from
interbreeding?
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
peculiarities involves also, among them, the transmission of disease, or
tendency to disease,--a constantly increasing heritage of liability as
interbreeding goes on; in plants well exemplified by maladies affecting
old cultivated varieties long propagated by division.
I 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 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 find 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 Linnæan Society.”
I am particularly interested in what you write of your popular “British
Flora,” and the English names; and I 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 something 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 different parts of the
country.
How do you name the orders? What relation will you have between your
specific names and your generic, and how many words will you allow each
to consist of?
Give me your names through some family, say Ranunculaceæ. If I can see
my way clear, I shall follow your lead, or cause it to be followed on an
occasion which will soon be presented.
I wish I had known of Clitoria Mariana-acuminata, etc., 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.
I am quite prepared for what you say about interchange 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, etc.), 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 stations; 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, Illicium, Philadelphus, Astilbe, etc., divided
between Japan and the United States of 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 valuable 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 absorbed 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 consider.
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[36] I have prepared as an introduction to my
favorite science, finding there was no one in use here which I 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 people.
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 developing in his mind a love for the study of nature in one
of its pleasantest branches....
I want to offer you my new “Manual 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 bound to try all the steps of the
reasoning, and 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 criticised, 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 experience 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 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 human 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 species would no longer be a question of fact, or of much
consequence.
You 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....
The tendency of my mind is opposed 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 before....
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 suggestive and therefore
far more useful to you than any amount of praise, with which I could
fill page after page.
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 impossible, 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. Sullivant 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 German 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 called to see Greene, but he was not in....
TO GEORGE BENTHAM.
November 16, 1857.
I have noted with interest Naudin’s doings in Cucurbitacæ. 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.
Sophocles, our Greek tutor, who knows cultivated plants well, and
everything about mediæval and ancient Greek, is quite clear that the
ancients knew nothing of pumpkins and winter squashes, and is able to
correct De Candolle’s lucubrations in one or two points. Our New England
and Canadian aborigines had beans, too. Those and Cucurbita came north
from a warmer climate with maize, I presume....
When I got your proof-sheet of the “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 occasion 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 Mousetail instead of Myosure. Myosure is hardly more English than
before clipping its tail a little, and Mousetail is the exact
equivalent. Corydal and Astragal 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 subgeneric name
govern the popular nomenclature? as say--
Pear; genus=Pyrus, under it
Pear, with its species;
Apple, 1. Common Apple,
2. Crab-Apple, etc.
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 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-recognized 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 demanded 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 different characters of his two Newfoundland dogs, and of the
smaller ones he had later, interested him, for they were singularly
different, though both the Newfoundlands shared his affection for a
pretty Maltese cat who had succeeded the other cats; they were
especially fond of her kittens and attentive to them, allowing them all
sorts of liberties. The cats and dogs always lived affectionately
together. Dr. Gray always recognized their good consciences, which
varied somewhat 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.
He was very skillful in the handling of animals, and they recognized it
in allowing him to perform small surgical operations, to dress wounds,
etc., with a touching trust and submission.
TO GEORGE BENTHAM.
March 9, 1858.
MY DEAR BENTHAM,--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 himself 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.
I 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....
I am glad you will distribute more of Spruce’s plants. I want especially
any of his Andes collections, for Baños was one of our Exploring
Expedition stations. I am going to finish up our Exploring Expedition
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 enjoying yourselves to the full....
April 26.
My last book[37] 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.[38]
February 23, 1858.
I dare say you may learn something here as to teaching, etc., 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 lectures to a selection of Juniors, on
Systematic Botany, I do not ordinarily commence till April 1, but this
year I am 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
from Florida 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.
Suppose you come on, count as a pupil, or as a visitor, as you like,
work away as you think best, making preparations for your course, in
which I will help you all I 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 established 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.
I shall be most glad to help you as a friend and fellow-worker; but I
cannot promise any special instruction, 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
lectures well, they were so full of knowledge and of enthusiasm and so
calculated to impress the young mind.
“I suppose he had not lectured much of late years; and in his many other
successes, his powers as a lecturer 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 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 “hurrying 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.”[39]
“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.”[40]
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 products, etc., in our university.
The erection of a new building for the Museum of Comparative Anatomy and
for the Mineralogical Cabinet liberates the very fine hall used for the
Mineralogical Cabinet formerly. This I have applied for, and obtained
for my purposes, and am taking into it the various things I have picked
up from time to time. It is a room about forty-five feet long, with deep
alcoves 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 vegetable 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 perchance 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 zoölogists, 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 London 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 Continent.
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....
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 research. So I want woods, fruits, seeds, etc., 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 proposition 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 “l’homme 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 fullest set of his
gatherings, and we may expect they will be better than formerly. For
(what I never thought he would have patience for) he has really taken
to studying botany, which he never did before, and digs away at his
dried specimens most perseveringly. 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 confirmed the title.... Brown delighted to rise from a
special case to high 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 finding
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 benevolence of his character, as well as to the
singular uprightness of his judgment.”[41]
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 delineation 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 call it, develop at Oxford?
Gladstone’s article I have not had time to read yet, nor his large work,
which probably will reach us presently, 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 Trübner & Company,
American booksellers (12 or 20) Paternoster Row, a copy of a new and
more elementary book[42] of mine than the one you are pleased to
compliment. 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. I should have made the little “Popular Flora” fuller if the
publishers had allowed more room.
Having last year reëdited my “Botanical Textbook” (of which, to complete
your set, a copy is also sent to you, through Trübner), I have now done
my 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 comparison of the flora of Japan (in which I have new
materials) with our own of the United States of America.
My college work keeps me very busy at this season.
... 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 England and on
the Continent. With great regard, I remain,
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 “Prodromus,” 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.
September 24.
At length we are home again, arriving night before last, very direct
from Quebec, where we had (as everywhere else upon our whole
route--Litchfield, New York, Palisades, Fairfield, Sauquoit, Montreal,
etc.) a delightful time. J. much stronger, except for a cold caught in
Quebec, which still lingers.
Colonel Munro[43] was very kind; is a jolly good fellow, 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[44] is an old friend of Dr.
Darlington, new to me, but writing to me of late. I know not his age,
profession, character, etc., etc. But he appears to know the plants
around him very well....
Hope you are getting settled down and comfortable.
I met Agassiz at the Club. He is cordial and pleasant. He had not heard
of your return, which I wondered at....
Fendler is with you, at least in St. Louis. Short is ready to advance
something if he will fall to collecting again wherever you say. Get him
some appointment with the army at Utah. That is the place. What is the
good of your both being 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, between light-complexioned and dark-complexioned people 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 “Linnæan
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, etc. I
shall now soon be done with my Japan studies, and shall print a paper
bringing to 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 hemisphere has mainly been via Asia.
I 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 approximate 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 coëxtensive 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 gynæcium of Ranunculus. I am confident 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 ambiguous, if I said ovary, that
would infer the combination; if ovaries, the distinctness. In Apocynaceæ
A. De Candolle steadily writes ovarium or ovaria, according to the
nature of the case. Per contra, you might as well call the column of
Malva a stamen! For the collective term, I wish, in your paper, you
would go for restoring to use the Linnæan term pistillum, and against
the habit of using ovarium in a double sense, 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 gynæcium; (2)
a separate pistil; or, (3) 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 read _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 distribution, 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 interesting letter about
theoretical ancient distribution of plants this week. Tell him I shall
have some evidence 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 yet....
TO JOHN TORREY.
January 7, 1859.
MY DEAR FRIEND,--I will send your bundles presently, 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 Ashburton Place, where I will be.
I am 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 him.
I introduced it here at Club, last month, and Agassiz took it very well,
indeed....
I 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 eleventh anniversary of our union, we
must not be separated then--“The Union, it must be preserved.” ...
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 religion.
Schreber spells Anthephora, but gives no derivation. P. de B., you see,
does, so Anthephora is doubtless 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.
I 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 welcome him when he comes to America and will do all we can to
advance his objects. Oregon and the country to the north of it (British
Columbia) 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 Hawaii, where there is said to be a
broad, almost untrodden, wooded region, between the principal
mountain-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, and 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 very cordially 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 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
you own; arrange it on paper of the size of Shaw’s. But look to an
eventual combination, 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 reside 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 interest 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 end....