GRAY, Asa, American botanist: b. Paris, Oneida County, N. Y., 18 Nov. 1810; d. Cam bridge, Mass., 30 Jan. 1888. He was graduated at the Fairfield Medical College in 1831; but had already acquired a taste for natural science which led him to abandon the practise of medi cine for the study of botany. He became curator of the New York Lyceum of Natural History. The flora of the United States was by no means well known and classified at that period, and many botanical problems were to be solved by the attainment of new data in his chosen science. He had attracted notice so early as 1834 and was appointed botanist to the Wilkes Exploring Expedition, which was so dilatory in starting that he resigned the position in 1837, and in 1842 was elected Fisher pro fessor of natural history at Harvard Univer sity. Between the resignation of his post as botanist to the Wilkes Expedition and his ac ceptance of the chair at Harvard, he took the opportunity of traveling over Europe, where be made many social and scientific friends and in England met Dean Church of Saint Paul's, London, then Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, with whom he kept up a correspondence of the most intimate friendship until his death. Both were many-sided men of keen intellect and reverent minds. From 1842 to 1873, when he retired from his professorate at Cambridge, the life of Gray is to be read in his published works. He gradually developed the reputation of a botanist of the first rank, one of the greatest of his century and certainly the greatest his country had ever produced. His lot was cast at a point in the history of science when the arti ficial system of botany was to pass away, and the new and natural method was to undergo development. There were vast masses of new material constantly pouring in from the newly explored Middle Western Territories, together with the rich spoils that government expeditions were bringing by sea from the Pacific Coast.
Professor Gray, with the assistance of Dr. John Torrey (see TORREY, JOHN), set about to ar range these multitudinous specimens in accord ance with the newest methods; to identify, name and classify them. His work was to be called the 'Flora of North America,' and was to be a comprehensive history of the botany of the country upon a classification basis of natural affinity. This work was not completed beyond the order of Composiks, as the constant acces sions of new specimens rendered the portions already published out of date, and proved that the attempt at so colossal an undertaking would be premature before all the material was in, and every specimen had been deliberately examined and classified. Yet Gray's pen could not be idle, and he published volume after volume in which he showed he was as dear and concise as an exponent of botany in its elementary principles as he was skilful and bold in wide generaliza tions and profound analysis. His scientific posi tion was that of a theistic evolutionist. He dissented from Darwin's opinion that variation was the result of fortuitous contingencies. He was a teleologist and believed that species were differentiated according to a preordained plan in the mind of a creator, and he was of the spirit that could subscribe to evolution and yet repeat the Catholic creed. His principal writ ings are as follows: 'Elements of (1.836) ; 'Structural and Systematical Botany) (1879) ; 'Manual of Botany for the Northern United States) (1848) ; 'Genera Boreali-Ameri cana Illustrata> (1849) ; 'Botany of the United States Exploring Expedition under Captain Wilkes' (1854) ; 'Plants; Wrightianm Tercano Neomexicarm) (1853) ; Essays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism) (1876) ; 'Synoptical Flora of North America' (1884) ; 'Natural Science and Religion) (1880) ; pub lished posthumously, but edited by Sargent, 'Scientific Papers of Asa Gray) (1889) ; and 'Letters of Asa (1894).