It has been my aim, in collecting and arranging the “Letters” from Dr. Gray’s large correspondence, to show, as far as possible in his own words, his life and his occupation. The greater part of the immense mass of letters he wrote was necessarily purely scientific, uninteresting except to the person addressed; so that many of those published are merely fragments, and very few are given completely. I have made no attempt to estimate his scientific or critical labors, for they are sufficiently be

My great-great-grandfather, John Gray, with his family, among which was Robert Gray, supposed to be one of his sons, emigrated from Londonderry, Ireland, to Worcester, Mass., being part of a Scotch-Irish colony. [1] The farm they took up was on the north side of what is now Lincoln Street. Robert Gray, my great-grandfather, died in Worcester, January 16, 1766. He married Sarah Wiley [2] about the year 1729. They had ten children; the eighth was Moses Wiley Gray, my grandfather, born in Worcester

Dr. Gray’s autobiographical fragment closes abruptly, and is valuable chiefly for the glimpse which it gives of his ancestry and his boyhood. He kept no diary, but he carried on a voluminous correspondence, and his letters thus contain a record of his hard-working, eager life. The earliest tell of the struggle for position, his doubts if his loved science could furnish him a maintenance, and his resolution to make any sacrifice if he could devote himself to its study. His wants outside of applia

It has been deemed expedient to give a somewhat fuller narrative of Dr. Gray’s first visit to Europe than of his subsequent ones. It was then that he formed many personal acquaintances which ripened into lifelong friendships, and received his first impressions of scenes in nature and art which were to become very familiar. His letters home took the form of a very detailed journal, and it is in extracts from this journal, supplemented by letters to other friends, that this narrative consists. JOU

On Dr. Gray’s return from Europe, the University of Michigan not yet needing his services, he settled in New York to work on the “Flora of North America.” [122] In 1841 he made his first journey to the mountains of North Carolina, of which he wrote an account in the “American Journal of Science” in the form of a letter to Sir William Hooker. The country west of the Mississippi was just now opened to exploration, and for some years continued to afford an immense amount of new material to the bota

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,

As before stated, Dr. Gray’s letters to Dr. Darwin previous to 1862 have been destroyed, save the one dated January 23, 1860, which was published in Darwin’s “Life and Letters,” and is here reproduced for the convenience of the reader, as well as Dr. Gray’s letter of January 5, 1860, to Dr. Joseph D. Hooker, also published in Darwin’s “Life and Letters.” The original letters to Darwin later than 1862 have been more or less injured, apparently by the ravages of mice, so that in copying them it ha

Dr. Gray made his fourth journey to Europe in the fall of 1868. He landed in September, and went at once to Kew, where he remained most of the time at work in the herbarium until November. He made a short round of visits, first to Mr. Church, who was then rector of Whatley, a village of Somersetshire, where, with Mrs. Gray, he enjoyed to the full his stay in one of the loveliest parts of rural England. They went also to Down to pay a visit to Darwin, and with them went Dr. and Mrs. Hooker, with

Dr. Gray sailed for Europe with Mrs. Gray early in September, 1880. He went especially to study herbaria for his new volume of the “Synoptical Flora,” and saw almost every collection of importance, giving especial attention to the subject of asters. The autumn was spent in western France and Spain, and in Madrid he looked over the herbarium there. He declared nobody had ever had so many asters pass through his hands as he had had! The winter was spent in hard work in the Kew herbarium. He enjoye

Dr. Gray in his will left to the herbarium the proceeds of all his copyrights. His strong belief in the importance of a large and well-kept herbarium, as an establishment indispensable not only to the development of botanical studies at Harvard but also to the diffusion throughout the whole country of a knowledge of its flora, is shown by this bequest, and also by the active efforts he was constantly making in its behalf during his life and by the personal sacrifices to which he cheerfully submi