|
Correspondence of Asa Gray and G. W. Clinton |
|
The
Correspondence of Asa
Gray (1810-1888) and George
William Clinton (1807‑1885) 1865 Vol 1. (22) [I 206] My dear "[Hestia" = [ulitmia], as the fruit will show. [Thus] of the 23d mentioning the pretty Collinsia verna, puts
me up to say, that I hope you will pick and send me all the ripe seed you can
lay hold of. By Gardener's folly we have failed to secure it here, as we
might, so I hope you may to some extent make up our short comings, if the
plant abounds where you find it. And as to the Cyperaceae, the great
hope of the [season] is that you will rediscover & make plenty of
fine specimens of Scirpus Clintonii. I am very sorry to hear you have been sick. Hope you're perfectly
well again and rejoicing over the full end ‑ & the very wretched
end ‑ of the rebellion. Mrs. Gray sends her very best regards. Ever yours cordially A. Gray Recd. June 3 [on the reverse side in apparently different handwriting:]
"Meeting of the Council at Dr. Gary's, May 27, 1865; Bes... The President
‑ Secretaries, Revd. D. " Gray appears to
have used "post consumer" paper for some of his letters, as was the
custom of the times, to vigorously pursue thrift. A voluminous correspondence
made a heavy toll on the paper budget. The end of the
rebellion is the Civil War. Of the many "messes" of the final year
of the war (1865), Gray could have been referring to the capture and death of John Wilkes Booth on
April 26. All throughout the month the Confederate forces were surrendering
and disbanding amid ongoing skirmishes. The next day the tragic explosion on
the Sultana occurred as it transported paroled Federal soldiers up the
Mississippi River from It is with this
peace that those portions of Clinton's correspondence available today begins,
although there is evidence from his journal and other letters that
correspondence had been going on for decades earlier. These earlier letters
which The Scirpus
Clintonii, described by Gray in 1864, delighted Clinton who avidly sought
more of it from the type locality around According to
Clinton's collecting
journal, as early as 1862 Clinton was sending field collections to Gray,
who was working on the Fifth edition of his manual and desired specimens from
a number of people who lived in the different regions of the country the
Manual covered. Detailed morphological, distributional knowledge, the
flowering and fruiting times of many American plants was not known nor their
general and local abundance recorded. Gray appeared to
be interested in Ribes, Sambucus, Equisetums, Cerastium, the bulbs of
Erythronium albidum, some to plant in the gardens to which Gray referred in
the letter above. On August 11,
1862, Gray wrote a
letter of introduction for the Reverend James Fowler, of Richibucto, Kent
Co., In 1865, Jan. 15. Went to
the Episcopal Church in the morning, no work at Grays. Like a true [man], he has family prayer in
the morning, & says grace.' Jan. 16. 'During my stay, Gray examined,
partially, a small packet I brought him. I left with him a very small packet
for Mr. Boott. Gray gave me T. & G.'s N. Amn. Flora in sheets, a number
of his works, & a large number of specimens. Examined his paper,
herbarium cases, mode of pressing & gluing on specimens, &c. One day
he set his workwoman at work, that I might see the process of gluing. On Monday, worked
principally with Gray. On Tuesday, with Mr. Wright, visited the In an annotation
by Jane Loring Gray in her editorial treatment of the Letters of Asa Gray,
(The Riverside Press, she wrote the following: [At Cambridge, Mass.] "The
garden was laid out by Dr. Peck in 1801, and the house built for him was
finished in 1810. Mr. Nuttall, the botanist and ornithologist, who boarded in
it while giving instruction in botany, left some
curious traces behind him. He was very shy of intercourse with his fellows,
and having for his study the southeast room, and the one above for his
bedroom, put in a trap-door in the floor of an upper connecting closet, and
so by a ladder could pass between his rooms without the chance of being met
in the passage or on the stairs. A flap hinged and buttoned in the door
between the lower closet and the kitchen allowed his meals to be set in on a
tray without the chance of his being seen. A window he cut down into an outer
door, and with a small gate in the board fence surrounding the garden, of
which he alone had the key, he could pass in and out safe from encountering
any human being." It may be that
Nuttall's wonderful behavior was a favorite topic to be shared with Gray's
guests. It seems odd for Nuttall to wish to escape human beings yet still be
willing to "give instruction." The illegible word in Clinton's
manuscript is unfortunate. Vol. 1.(25) [I 203] Dear It will be time, when you receive this, to collect the Scirpus
Clintonii, a great bit of it, some of it 10 days later, also. Collinsia
verna I chiefly want seeds of, sent fresh when quite ripe. I am arranging to have a bit of Carices sent you. Ever Yours A. Gray Recd. June 7, Wrote him 9th The Carices were
to come from Edward Tuckerman to On June 7th,
Wednesday, Clinton went "Into the woods at Smoke's Creek, gathered Viola
striata, a little, Poa sylvestris & Poa alsodes, Carex pubescens, and
some (scarcely ripe) seed of Collinsia verna (mailed it to Gray) and some
mosses." Some of the graminoids appear in Gray's next letter: Vol. 1.(48) [I 178] Dear At length I have a moment or two, and I have carefully examined the
Grasses in your letter, and I pronounce one to be alsodes and the
other sylvestris, as you have named them. I rely on you for good
herbarium specimens of both, at the end of the season. Prunus virg[iniana] abnormal, is just as P.
Americana delights to be, i.e. ovary puffed up, I never could trace it
to any work of insects. I dare say if you send me a suite of forms of Festuca nutans, I
shall deposit them all in the herbarium ‑ ugly dog though he be. Pray what was the trouble with your foot? I hope it is now quite
right. I rejoice in the seeds of Collinsia verna! Don't put
yourself out in gathering more ‑ tho' more will be welcome. Polygonatum: the big one is just P. giganteum as I take it. I have cultivated it with it, in our poor soil is only 1 1/2 "
high. The leaves are more clasping [ ] [ ]
base than the smaller one, which we also have, but I have found no
other difference. Scirpus Clintonii! It did come near giving us the slip, but we have five, [with?] some
fruit drops. Many thanks for the nice supply. I leave you to post some specimens to Engelmann, also, if you
please, to [Cild...] and any of your correspondents. I gave it to Torrey,
& to our friends abroad. Carex, No. 1. "When I look at it, I think of C.
granularis" also, and I can't think it anything else. Why should you. No. 2. C. platyphylla ‑ fine. Goes to herbarium C. oederi is apt to act so. Very cordially yours, Asa Gray Recd. June 20. Vol. 1. 48. Asa Gray [June,
1865] [Note I 177 torn from an envelope associated with No. 48] Overlooked Carices no. 3. = platyphylla, var. 4. = pallescens A. G. Evening. Look out! I find among your specimens S. plantifolius & S.
clintonii. Must revise them by daylight. Look for some with long flat leaves
& pointed scales! A. G. Carex granularis
Muhl. Meadow Sedge Carex Oederi var.
pumila (Cos. & Germ.) Fern. = C. viridula Michx.,
the Green Sedge, is rare in western Festuca nutans
(of authors) = F. obtusa Biehler, Nodding Fescue (note how its common name
reflects the earlier technical name) Poa alsodes, Gray. Poa sylvestris,
Gray. Polygonatum
giganteum A. Dietr.ex Otto & Dietr. = P. biflorum (Walt.) Ell. The smaller
Polygonatum is P. pubescens (Willd.) Pursh., one the
Great, the other the Small Solomon's‑seal; Prunus Prunus virginiana
l. Choke Cherry Scirpus Clintonii
Gray, In Clinton first
made contact with Dr. George Engelman of St. Louis by a letter on March 15,
1862 (MO archives) a few months after the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences
was organized, and when Clinton was its president. He was invited to contact
Engelmann by his friend Robert Buchanan of Cincinatti, who furnished
"the names of a few gentlemen of the West whom he regards as able and
willing to aid us by correspondence and exchanges, and specifies yourself
among them." Engelmann was collaborating with Asa Gray in revising the
next edition of the Manual. He had worked earlier with Gray and John Torrey
on two railway reports sponsored by the Vol. 1. (52) [I 173] Dear I have looked over the specimens, and find 3 of them S. planifolius ‑
I send back two of them. The rest all S. Clintonii but the leaf is longer than the character
allows ‑ sometimes little shorter than the culm. You may know the planifolius by the cuspidate scales, let
alone the leaf. Do the two grow mixed together? Pray do not find any
intermediates. If there are any more, Nature, as she completes her selection
will soon annihilate them, and you will be quite justified in helping her. Look sharp among them before they quite pass by. Ever yours A. Gray Recd. June 21 & ans. [ditto] An interesting
reference to Nature's selection in view of Scirpus Clintonii
Gray, Scirpus
planifolius Muhl. = S. verecundus Fern. Wood Club‑rush,
listed as rare and probably extirpated in western Vol. 1. (63) [I 162] My dear How thoughtlessly cruel I have been to urge you to rush off for Collinsia
etc. with such a lame foot. Through ignorance I did it. With all your happy contrivances
and nice fixtures, I advise you to be careful, and send younger people to
botanize, as I do. I don't believe "Scirpus Clintonii is a
goner" yet. You are so lucky as to find both; that's all. The long flat
leaves and the pointed scales go uniformly together thus far. The onus
probandi rests on the doubter. We will hold fast yet. A few more such cases will go near to convert you to Darwinism.
Just look over your stock and see if you find any intermediates. Did
you collect all in one place? Ever Yours A. Gray Onus probandi, as
may be guessed, means the burden of proof, or, literally, the burden of
proving. The onus lies with the person making a charge on whom
is the expectation of proof of assertion. Gray enjoyed ragging 28th June [same sheet] Some things can be done, ‑ and you have done it. It is Scirpus
caespitosus. You have only to furnish me ‑ in due time ‑ in your
annual contribution ‑ some fair specimens for the herbarium. Fear what
you send in a wisp in letter are not comely in herbarium. You are a rare Scirpus‑hunter! Why don't you" [...] & call" Juniperus Virginiana
var. humilis" a
species? I should agree with you, ‑ now that Dr. Robbins has pointed
out to me a good character ‑ the recurved fruit ‑ and that it is
the J. Sabina of the Well, I see by yours of the 26? that you
are securing your courage & will hold fast to Carices. save the mark ! 1. C. siccata, I suppose? 3. C. siccata?, too poor. 2. C. stellulata 4. C. teretiuscula, var. prairiea Dewey 5. gynocrates. A good haul. Ever Yours A. Gray Recd. June 30 & ansd. Carex gynocrates
Wormsk, Northern Bog Sedge, is rare in western Scirpus
caespitosus L. Tufted Club‑rush is rare in western Vol. 1. (71) [I 151] Yesterday I went after Poa alsodes. He has gone up. Poa sylvestris
ready, if not quite, do. [ditto]. The inclosed Poa has bothered me very much. I mean the slender,
small & delicate form that grows in the woods,
is common & pretty. The coarser one grows here & there in the
openings, & on the edges of the woods in the banks of streams. I also
inclose one specimen of the Poa compressa of our meadows. Now I believe they
are all Poa compressa, but I want your say so as to the delicate woodland
one. Yours ever G. W. Clinton [lower corner, Prof. A. Gray] [written by Gray on this letter and
presumably returned: "Well, we won't mind calling them all P.
compressa. A. G."] [I 152] July 6 [Gray's handwriting] Juniperus Sabina, Linn. Europea. Is in Hook., Fl. Bor. Am. The weed, = Cynanchum nigrum L. an Asclepiad of Ever A. G. Recd. July 8 Cynanchum nigrum
(L.) Pers., Black Swallowwort is reported as rare in western Hooker, W. J.
Flora boreali-americana; or, the botany of the northern parts of Vol. 1. (80) [I 141] Dear Look you, the paper containing your 4th
July oration has not come! Did you really send it? Please send
another copy, I can read it when on my travels soon, in railroad car,
& so lose nothing for Botany, but gain ‑ we shall see what! Seriously I wish to have a copy. Your Mr. Day has sent me that Cynanchum nigrum. And I
charge you to tell him what it is, and save me the writing of one letter. Ever Yours A. Gray Recd. July 12 David F. Day was a
fellow lawyer in the City of A fruitless search has
been made at the Erie County Public Library for the published text of Vol. 1.(103) [I 116 & I 117] C[ambridge] 22d [July, 1865] Have been absorbed in our public days, & especially in our great
Commemoration of yesterday. Have overlooked yours of the 10th. I think the leaf is one of
Populus heterophylla. I should try Engelmann in Characeae. He should manage
them with, or without Prof. Braun's help. I have half a mind to go for a day to Yours A. Gray Recd. July 26 Sauquoit is a village
in the town of Unlike the flat
petioles of the "trembling" Aspens (native species of Populus in
the Another sheet gives
the following botanical information [I 117]: Ranunculus Flammula var. reptans ‑ small Eleocharis
= the large state of E. palustris ‑ which I never got in such good
fruit. I rely on you for some good specimens, in due time, i.e. next winter. Scirpus Torreyi. I fail
to see anything remarkable about the root, except that it dosen't appear to
have running rootstalks, like pungens ‑ a good distinction.
Specimens, of course, wanted for Hb. [Herbarium] I have not seen their Tofieldia glutinosa of After getting this, you should send your
next to me at Sauquoit, Oneida Co., where I hope to be
at the end of next week. Dr. Grosvenor, here to-day, tells me the sad news that poor Bebb has
lost his wife. Poor fellow. Our commencement to-morrow. Soldier's commemoration Friday. Your oration
received, read, & approved ‑ thorough good tone. Ever A. G. |