Gray, Asa

American Botanist 1810-1888

Asa Gray was the dominant force in botanical science in the United States throughout the mid-nineteenth century. He substantially advanced and influenced the study of North American flora and the dissemination of information about it. Gray's studies led to a reassessment of floristic plant geography in North America, and he was famous for the sheer volume of his knowledge and the way he used it to advance American botany. Gray won respect for American botany from abroad. Moreover, he played a critical role in the eventual acceptance of Darwin's theories in the United States.

Asa Gray was born in 1810 in Sauquoit Valley, New York, near Utica. As a youth he helped his father with farm and tannery work. He attended Fairfield Medical School, where he first became acquainted with basic botanical principles. Gray was awarded a medical degree in 1831, but then took a position as an instructor in chemistry, mineralogy, and botany in Utica, thus beginning his career in botany.

Gray corresponded with the famed botanist John Torrey (1796-1873), sending him specimens of local plants. In 1833 he joined Torrey in New York, first collecting plants for him, then as his assistant, and then shortly thereafter as his collaborator. Gray had a talent for investigation and scientific description, and even at this early stage of his career he was writing for publication. In 1835 he became curator and librarian at the Lyceum of Natural History in New York. He then accepted a position as botanist of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition, but various delays, coupled with his work on other projects, led to his resignation in 1837 before the expedition even began. Some time after the expedition, Gray was brought in to help publish its scientific results.

Gray began working with Torrey on a comprehensive flora of North America as early as 1835. This project eventually necessitated the study of American specimens located in European herbaria. Also at this time, Gray received a job offer as professor of botany and zoology at the not-yet-opened University of Michigan, and he was assigned the task of travelling to Europe to purchase books and equipment. He consequently went to Europe to study specimens and purchase resources, and while there he met prominent European scientists, including Charles Darwin (1809-1882). In 1839 Gray returned to the United States. Two volumes of the Flora of North America were published in 1838 and 1843; a third volume was never completed.

By 1842 the University of Michigan had still not yet opened, and so Gray accepted an invitation to become Fisher Professor of Natural History at Harvard University. In the course of his work and correspondence he built up a large herbarium and library, resources that enabled him to continue his botanical investigations and publications. Many specimens collected by others were given to Gray so that he could study, identify, and, if necessary, name them, publishing their descriptions and expanding botanical knowledge.

Gray published prolifically, including major studies such as the Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States (1848), the Genera Florae Americae Boreali-Orientalis Illustrata (1848-49), and various reports on botanical findings from expeditions and surveys. He also wrote a number of popular textbooks, held in high esteem by his peers and used widely in preparatory schools and colleges. These included Elements of Botany (1836), First Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology (1857), and How Plants Grow (1858). He published two parts of a Synoptical Flora of North America before he died, and two more parts were published later by others.

The Flora of North America

Gray maintained an intense interest in the flora of North America throughout his career. This interest was fueled by various plant collection efforts, particularly in the American West, conducted as a result of mapping and surveying being done for the railroads and the geological surveys. Collectors also accompanied military expeditions, bringing back specimens from farther afield. Several new scientific institutions were formed, in part to accommodate the data and specimens being gathered.

Collectors brought new species to the attention of both Torrey and Gray, who influenced where plants were being collected and how the resulting information was processed and disseminated. Gray's extensive studies of collected specimens gave him an unparalleled working understanding of the North American landscape and the plants within it, including their distribution.

Evolution and Plant Geography

Gray also studied specimens collected from elsewhere, and he eventually demonstrated a direct relationship between certain Japanese and eastern North American plants. Many of the same species were found in both places but not elsewhere. Gray argued for a common ancestry for these species, reasoning that they must have grown all the way across the northern continent at some time in the distant past, and that glaciers during the ice ages wiped out large sections of growth, so that the now-separated plants developed different characteristics. In 1859, this work led to a reassessment of plant geography in North America.

Gray expressed these ideas to Darwin, who also shared his own ideas with Gray before publishing them in On the Origin of Species in the same year. Gray became an advocate for Darwin's theories in the United States, helping to move the American scientific establishment further away from Linnaean ideas and toward those of Darwin. He demonstrated to scientists abroad that botany in North America was now being pursued with a professionalism comparable to that found in Europe. Gray was also a factor in the enhancement of scientific infrastructure in the United States, building an herbarium and library, influencing expeditions, and advising museums. These developments would persuade American collectors to entrust specimens to American institutions rather than sending them abroad to the great herbaria of Europe. Botany in the United States came of age with the work of Asa Gray. Gray received many honors during his lifetime and was a member of numerous academies and scholarly societies in America and Europe. He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1888.

see also Flora; Herbaria; Taxonomist; Taxonomy; Taxonomy, History of; Torrey, John.

Charlotte A. Tancin

Bibliography

Dupree, A. H. Asa Gray, 1810-1888. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1959.

Ewan, J. A Short History of Botany in the United States. New York: Hafner PublishingCo., 1969.

Humphrey, H. B. Makers of North American Botany. New York: Ronald Press Co.,1961.

Isely, D. One Hundred and One Botanists. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1994.

Kastner, J. A Species of Eternity. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977.

Reed, H. S. A Short History of the Plant Sciences. New York: Ronald Press Co., 1942.

Reveal, J. L. Gentle Conquest: The Botanical Discovery of North America. Washington, DC: Starwood Publishing Co., 1992.

Spongberg, S. A. A Reunion of Trees: The Discovery of Exotic Plants and Their Introduction into North American and European Landscapes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.