Excerpt from Scientific Papers of Asa Gray, Vol. 1 Asa gray's first scientific paper was published in 1834 his last was written in 1887, a few weeks before the end of his life. The number of his contributions to science and their variety are remarkable, and astonish his associates even, familiar as they were with his intellectual activity, his vari ous attainments, and that surprising industry which neither assured position, the weariness of advancing years, nor the hopelessness of the task he had imposed upon himself, ever diminished. Professor Gray's writings may be naturally grouped in four divisions. The first in importance contains his contributions to descriptive botany. These with few exceptions were de voted to the flora of North America, and although it did not fall to his lot, as it did to that of some of his contemporaries, to elaborate any one of the great families of plants, the extent and character of his contributions to systematic botany will place his name among those of the masters of the science. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.