Correspondence of G

Correspondence of Asa Gray and G. W. Clinton
Edited by P. M. Eckel
Res Botanica
Missouri Botanical Garden
October 13, 2005
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The Correspondence of

Asa Gray (1810-1888) and

George William Clinton (1807‑1885)

1865

Vol 1. (22) [I 206]

Cambridge. May 31, 1865

My dear Clinton

"[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. Peabody."

"Let Dr. [Day] provide a book for recording [ ] Letters & [ ] received, not .... dispensing with the record ... Secretary's book."

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 Vicksburg, men who had been imprisoned in Confederate prison camps and were going home. The minimum number of soldiers killed in this catastrophe was put at 1238. The coffin containing the body of Abraham Lincoln was viewed by 50,000 people in Cleveland, Ohio. He would be buried at Springfield, Illinois on May 4. Toward the end of May the Grand Armies of the Republic passed last full review in Washington, D. C., the regiments filling the streets before dispersing for home. By the first of June, the war was over. The peace had begun and with it Reconstruction.

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 Clinton, no doubt, assembled into volumes, are not in the research library of the Buffalo Museum of Science, Buffalo, New York.

The Scirpus Clintonii, described by Gray in 1864, delighted Clinton who avidly sought more of it from the type locality around Buffalo, New York. In the Fifth edition of Gray's Manual of Botany, 1867, this species is listed (p. 561) as "Rather dry plains, New York, Jefferson Co., Dr. Crawe; near Buffalo, G. W. Clinton. June."

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. Clinton was sending Gray specimens of Cuscuta gronovii. On September 27 of 1862, he sent seeds of Astragalus canadensis from Strawberry Island, an island in the middle of the upper Niagara River, to Gray. Gray would write back determinations and Clinton would carefully preserve the authenticated specimen as part of the future Clinton Herbarium of the new Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences.

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, Clinton found Scirpus Clintonii "On the Plains near the quarries ..." but Gray wrote back that it was Scirpus Torreyi instead.

Gray wrote a letter of introduction for the Reverend James Fowler, of Richibucto, Kent Co., New Brunswick, of British Canada to meet Clinton, and an intimate correspondence and friendship began on July 4, 1864. In September Clinton wrote in his journal "Looked at Silliman's Journal. Gray is out with Scirpus Clintonii."

In 1865, Clinton was invited by Gray for a visit to Cambridge when he, Clinton, visited Albany, New York. 'I went to Old Cambridge Station, & a walk of 3/4 m. brought me to Prof. Gray's house in Garden St. where I was most kindly received & where I remained until Thursday." Gray, a devout man, did not work on Sundays. :

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 Cambridge Museum, & had pleasant talks with the assistants, & got their cards, in order to put our people in communication with them. Agassiz absent. The names are ‑ John G. Anthony, Box 703, P.O. Cambridge Conchology P.R. Uhler. Mus. of Comp. Zool., Cambridge, Insects. N. S. Shaler, Ass't in Palaeontology, Mus. of C. Z. &c."

Clinton learned that he was not the only boarder at Gray's house, at an earlier time: "Nuttall boarded in this house. He must have been odd. He occupied Gray's room & more above. He was afraid of a w..., had a hole cut in the ceiling of a closet, & went to the room above by ladder, and had a private way out of the house, & his food was passed into him through a window in the closet. He had a fine estate, in England, left to him, in condition that he should not be absent from it more than 3 months in a year, so he took the last 3 months of one year & the first 3 of the next for his rambles.'

In an annotation by Jane Loring Gray in her editorial treatment of the Letters of Asa Gray, (The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1894 Vol. II p. 326)

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]

Cambridge, June 5 [1865]

Dear Clinton

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 Clinton and derived from the "Herbarium of the late Dr. Boott (Tuckerman Vol.1(27). See also Tuckerman's letter of June 15, 1865 (Vol.1(45) where Elihu Hall of Athens, Illinois, was to receive the leavings after Clinton's selection.

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]

Cambridge June 17, 1865

Dear Clinton

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 New York (Zander & Pierce, 1979). Carex platyphylla Carey, Broad‑leaved Sedge Collinsia verna, Nutt. Blue‑eyed Mary, rare in western New York (Zander & Pierce, 1979).

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 americana Marsh. Wild Plum

Prunus virginiana l. Choke Cherry

Scirpus Clintonii Gray, Clinton's Club‑rush: see note next letter

In Clinton's journal for June 3 Clinton wrote: 'The Big Polygonatum, with opposite leaves, not yet in flower, ought to be examined. It seems different from the common, big one, the giganteum of Dietrich, according to Day [Gray writes = giganteum]." Clinton also wrote: "Crossing to the [Buffalo] Creek, found a clump of Prunus Virginiana, with monstrous fruit, like the P. Americana of Grand Island, took specimen, and, in the evening, mailed one to Gray.' He continues to worry about his Polygonatum: 'The big, opposite leaved, Polygonatum, not yet in flower along the Hydraulic Canal, but took 2 specimens, intending one for Gray, presume he will call it giganteum, though its aspect be different.'

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 United States government, treating the Cactaceae. He provided the treatments of Callitriche, Cuscuta, Euphorbia, Juncus, Isoetes, Pinus, and Sagittaria to the Fifth edition of Gray's Manual of 1867 and Clinton regularly sent specimens from these genera to St. Louis.

Vol. 1. (52) [I 173]

Cambridge Monday 20 June [1865]

Dear Clinton

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 Darwin's controversy. Gray also may be referring to the passing of the season? rather than the extinction of the intermediate forms. I rather hope he is not encouraging Clinton to remove the evidence that the plant named for his correspondent is actually only a variant of Scirpus planifolius. Note that both are rare and probably extirpated in western New York (see below.) The differences, according to Gray's sixth edition, are not striking. The range of S. verecundus is "New England to Delaware, west to western N.Y. and Penn."

Scirpus Clintonii Gray, Clinton's Club‑rush, is sadly rare and probably eliminated through habitat destruction in western New York and adjacent Ontario (Zander & Pierce, 1979). In Gray's sixth edition, 1889, the locality is given as "Rather dry plains, N.Y. June."

Scirpus planifolius Muhl. = S. verecundus Fern. Wood Club‑rush, listed as rare and probably extirpated in western New York (Zander & Pierce, 1979).

Clinton wrote in his journal for June 20: 'In a letter from Gray, he says that, some Scirpus planifolius is mixed with Scirpus Clintonii.'

Vol. 1. (63) [I 162]

Cambridge 20 June 1865

My dear Clinton

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 Clinton on Clinton's prowess as a lawyer and judge.

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 Old World! For not submitting you are fined one specimen.

Well, I see by yours of the 26? that you are securing your courage & will hold fast to S. Clintonii. That is right.

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 New York. Carex siccata Dewey, Dry‑spiked Sedge is rare in western New York. Carex stellulata Good. = C. muricata L., Prickly Sedge. Carex teretiuscula var. major Koch = C. diandra Schrank, Lesser Panicled Sedge p. 575 Carex prairiea Dew. is considered a synonym of var. major in the 5th edition.

Scirpus caespitosus L. Tufted Club‑rush is rare in western New York.

Vol. 1. (71) [I 151]

Buffalo, June 29, 1865. [Clinton's handwriting] My dear Gray:

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. Siberia. [& ...]

Is in Hook., Fl. Bor. Am.

The weed, = Cynanchum nigrum L. an Asclepiad of S. Europe.

Ever

A. G.

Recd. July 8

Cynanchum nigrum (L.) Pers., Black Swallowwort is reported as rare in western New York. It is in the Asclepiadaceae, or Milkweed Family. Juniperus sabina var. procumbens Pursh = J. horizontalis Moench, Creeping Juniper, is rare in western New York. Poa compressa, L., Canada Blue‑grass, is an alien species, common in our area.

Hooker, W. J. Flora boreali-americana; or, the botany of the northern parts of British America compiled principally from the plants collected by Dr. Richardson and Mr. Drummond on the late northern expeditions, under command of captain Sir John Franklin, R.N. London 1833-1840, 2 vols.

Vol. 1. (80) [I 141]

Cambridge 9th July [1865] Evening.

Dear Clinton

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 Buffalo and good friend of Clinton's. He shared Clinton's love of botany and desire to build the Buffalo Society of Natural History's botanical collections. He was a member, with Clinton and Dr. Charles C. F. Gay of the Committee on Botany, formed in 1861. He has probably played a much larger contribution to the botany of western New York and the City of Buffalo than has been so far recognized.

A fruitless search has been made at the Erie County Public Library for the published text of Clinton's oration.

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 Niagara some 3 weeks hence. Now I mean to drop in with my wife, & see you for an hour, and, if I can, Dr. Hadley ‑ my good old friend ‑ for another hour. If you want to communicate with me, address to Sauquoit, Oneida Co., N.Y.

Yours

A. Gray

Recd. July 26

Sauquoit is a village in the town of Paris, Oneida Co.

Unlike the flat petioles of the "trembling" Aspens (native species of Populus in the Willow family), that of P. heterophylla is round, like the usual introduced species. The seep sinus at the cordate leaf base is generally closed (not open or without a sinus) and the leaf apex is blunt or merely acute. The young foliage and first branches are white‑downy. The tree is more common south and southeast of western New York in inundated swamps.

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 Bergen Swamp. But it may well be there! What you send is Zygadenus glaucus but Paine [Hb.? Herbarium?] mention that too. Characteristic specimens of Eleocharis rostellata ‑ with your account there as annexed, as to its growth, will be very welcome, indispensable to the full knowledge of the plant.

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.

Beaked Spike‑rush, is rare in western New York . Populus heterophylla L. the Downy Poplar is not reported from western New York State and adjacent Ontario (Zander & Pierce, 1979). Ranunculus flammula var. reptans (L.) E. Meyer = R. flammula var. filiformis DC., Creeping Spearwort, is reported as rare and probably extirpated from the western New York flora. Tofieldia glutinosa (Michx.) Pers., False Asphodel, a plant, rare in western New York, of the Liliaceae or Lily Family.

Professor Braun seems to refer to Alexander Heinrich Braun (1805‑1877). He was director of the botanical garden at the University of Berlin from 1851 to 1877 after a career teaching botany at the university level in Germany. He was deeply involved in speculative theories in biology. Braun was a student of cryptogamous plants and was immersed in the study of Isoetes (Quillwort) at about the time of our Clinton letters, and George Engelmann of St. Louis and Durieu de Maisonneuve, M. C. of Bordeaux, France, were his colleagues in puzzling out the American Isoetes flora.

Isoetes melanopoda was described by Gay and Durieu, I. macrospora and I. muricata by Durieu, I. saccharata, I. riparia and I. Butleri by Engelmann. Isoetes Tuckermani was described by Alexander Braun, as was I. Engelmanni, named after American botanists who were both his contemporaries and correspondents of G. W. Clinton (names current with the 1950 edition of Gray's Manual revised by M. L. Fernald). Elias Durand of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia was a friend of Durieu and also worked on the genus (see below).

There are four letters by G. W. Grosvenor in the Clinton correspondence. An early address is from Barre, Massachusetts, later Providence, Rhode Island. He was a friend of Bebb whom he tried to reinterest in botany after the death of his wife by sending him specimens. Grosvenor visited Clinton and went on field trips with him and his botanical colleagues from Rochester (probably to Bergen Swamp). Grosvernor apparently received his M.D. from New York City institutions and practiced in Providence. Clinton introduced him (by letter) to Dr. Allen and Dr. Torrey of New York City.

Michael Schuck Bebb (1833‑1895) was a friend and correspondent of Gray, Clinton and Grosvenor, among others.

Professor James Hadley resided in Buffalo, New York. The only letter in the Clinton correspondence from Hadley is the following to Clinton:

V3: 3:78 [M 152]

Buffalo, May 23, 1866

My dear Sir:

In answer to your inquiries, I would state that I never found, and do not know that any one else ever found Opuntia vulgaris at Fairfield. The Statement of Dr. Torrey, in his Flora of the State: "The most northern locality in this State is Fairfield, where it was found by Prof. Hadley," is an error. I collected this plant at New Haven, Connecticut, and it may be that a specimen collected there slipped in among some plants from

Fairfield which I furnished to Doctor Torrey. I can imagine no other way in which the error could have occurred.

Very truly yours,

James Hadley

Vol. 1.(116) [I 98]

Sauquoit, 8 August, 1865

My dear Clinton

Your letter, forwarded, reached me at Cooperstown, where we spent the Sunday very pleasantly ‑ had been on a tour to Mud & Summit Lake, foot of Schulyer's Lake [Otsego Co.] , &c. (Paine along), and then as far East as Cherry Valley [Otsego Co.] ‑ for general delectation and for the recuperaton of Mrs. Gray. Returned him last evening, and we must go home early next week ‑ sooner than was intended, on account of illness of Mrs. Gray's father ‑ he is convalescent, indeed, but she wishes to be with him. So, again, my endeavors to see again Niagara and yourself are frustrated. We are having a delightful time, and we both thank you heartily for all your kind wishes.

As to your Grass, I am at a loss ‑ recollect no such Calamagrostis with no hairs, except on this rudiment. We will keep it quiet till I get your annual parcel with a good specimen of this among the rest. And then at home (Deo favente) and among my books & specimens, I will see what I can make of him.

Ever, dear Clinton

Yours cordially

A. Gray

Mrs. Gray has read the oration in the neat pamphlet form and pronounced it very interesting "Read sensible things in it, particularly well put," etc.

Recd. Aug. 9. Answered

Deo favente: with God's favor.

Summit Lake is in Otsego County, in the town of Richfield (1866). Schuyler Lake is in the southeastern corner which "occupies a deep valley; and into it flow several small streams from the N. and W." p. 537. In the town of Springfield of that county lies Summit Lake, in the northern part.

The Reverend John A. Paine, Jr., first of Utica, New York, then Newark, New Jersey.

Vol. 1.(130) [I 83]

[in Clinton's handwriting] Buffalo, Aug. 22, 1865

My dear Gray:

I have but a moment. The inclosed sent to me by Dr. Clarke of Michigan, who thinks it is Graphephorum. Please return it. He dosen't remember where he collected it.

Day before yesterday, in Irondequoit Bay, a Naias ‑ quite prickley ‑ may be [minor?] [perhaps 'maior' i.e. major]

Yesterday, in ergen Swamp, Solidago Houghtonii ‑ I have no doubt.

S. ohioensis

Scleria verticillata.

Yours ever

G. W. Clinton

[lower left] Prof. Gray

[on reverse, the reply from Gray:]

Tuesday

Dear Clinton

Exactly: this is the Graphephorum: Dr. Clarke should find out where he got it, & get much more. We are home nearly a week ‑ had a nice holiday.

Have you replicate specimens to spare of Ulmus racemosa, fls. & fruit. Mature leaves you can get now. If so, send me one in your next parcel. No hurry.

Ever

A. Gray

Graphephorum, in Gray's Fifth edition, is in the Gramineae: G. melicoides, Beauv. (p. 624); in the Sixth edition it is G. melicoideum Desv.

Graphephorum melicoides (Michx.) Desv. = Trisetum melicoides (Michx.) Vas, presently a rare species in New York State. Ulmus racemosa (of authors) = U. thomasii Sarg., Rock Elm.

Naias major, All. of Gray's Fifth edition has "Onondaga Lake, G. W. Clinton" (p. 483).

Dr. Daniel Clarke, of Flint, Michigan, was a correspondent of Clinton's, as were several other botanists of the time.

Vol. 1.(146) [I 66]

Cambridge Sept. 9, 1865

Dear Clinton

Better than you ask in yours of the 4th instant, I will send you a real autograph of my dear old Sir Wm. Hooker.

I have not yet heard direct from England, but I learn with anxiety that Dr. Hooker (J. D.) ‑ my constant correspondent of late years ‑ is sick. I do long to get some better news of him. There is nothing in Sept. no. of Sill. Journal ‑ at least nothing from me. I did not get the sad intelligence in time. Sir Wm. was in every respect, and in the highest sense a good man ‑ a Christian gentleman.

I knew you get only the foliage now of Ulmus racemosa. Flowers next spring. Fruit in early summer.

Naming Isoetes is no easy thing now. But I am glad you found one. Send specimens to Dr. Engelmann

Elias Durand, Philadelphia

A. G.

Mrs. Gray has not got on very well this summer ‑ not as stout as was wished. But she is now improving.

I have got A. Fendler here to help me & feel happy. But I have not got settled yet to real work ‑ am eaten up by administrative matters, &c. ‑ Mrs. Gray sends best regards.

P.S. When about ponds, please rake out of the water all the ripe fruits of Nymphaea you meet with. Pull them open ‑ from various localities ‑ and send me a good quantity of any you find with the seed not enclosed in a membranous bag (arillus) or with only a cup‑shaped one at the base of the seed.

Reason for request, I will give hereafter ‑ or you can ask Paine.

Mrs. Gray sends best regards.

Ever Yours

A. Gray

Recd. Sept. 12, wrote him 16th.

Sir William Jackson Hooker was appointed directer of the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew in 1841, a colleague of Gray's, had died in 1865. Gray was intimate with Hooker's distinguished son, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817‑1911) presently at work, with George Bentham, on the monumental 3 volume Genera Plantarum (1862‑1883) ‑ all written in Latin. Joseph Hooker, together with Asa Gray, would visit Goat Island at Niagara Falls together and a list of species encountered there recorded in Hooker's collecting diary:

THE DIARY OF SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER (Unpublished journal, copyright, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Chicago to Niagara Falls, Sept. 19, 1877)

"In 1877, Drs. Joseph Dalton Hooker and Asa Gray were returning east after conducting an expedition to study the flora of western North America. Niagara Falls lay on their eastward route and they decided to make a visit. Gray had explored the island some thirty years earlier in 1831 and had noted certain unusual plant species growing there, specimens of which he had sent to John Torrey and others" (P. M. Eckel 1990. BOTANICAL EVALUATION OF THE GOAT ISLAND COMPLEX, NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK: from THE DIARY OF SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER (Unpublished journal, copyright, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Chicago to Niagara Falls, Sept. 19, 1877) "In all, Hooker tabulated 47 species of trees and shrubs, and 68 species of herbs: 59 species of dicots, and 9 of monocots. On a single September day there were listed 115 species of plants observed, with many species in the daisy family noted, particularly among the Aster's and Goldenrods (Solidago)."

Eckel, P. M. 1990. Botanical Evaluation of the Goat Island Complex, Niagara Falls, New York. 1990.

http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/ResBot/flor/Bot_Goat/01_Cover.htm

Augustus Fendler (1813‑1888) was a free‑lance, bachelor plant collector, one of the best plant collectors of the ninteenth century. He came to the United States from Germany in 1836, trying his hand at various trades until he realized he could make a living for himself collecting plants, whereupon he introduced himself to George Engelmann of St. Louis who taught him collecting. Engelmann and Asa Gray sponsored his trip to the American Southwest on a government expedition to Santa Fe (Abert's Examination of New Mexico, 1846) and later the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey. Fendler was apparently the first to collect botanical specimens from these areas. He maintained his relationship mostly with Asa Gray, but also Engelmann and John Torrey, collecting for the Smithsonian Institution. During the 1860's Fendler was spending time farming in Missouri. He spent a period also acting as a curator for Asa Gray at Harvard during this period, and was probably curator when this letter was written.

Fruit of the genus Naias is "a little seed‑like nutlet, enclosed in a loose and separable membranous epicarp," (Gray's sixth edition, 1889). This note is the introductory reference to an exchange between Gray, Engelmann and John Paine, Jr., the latter a protege of Gray's, that would ultimately put an end to Paine's nascent career.

Autographs, examples of the handwriting of famous people, was of great interest to Clinton at this point, as were cabinet and cartes‑de‑visite (i.e. calling card, 2 1/4" x 3 3/4") photographs, which had become the rage during the Civil War.

Vol. 1.(198) [I 8]

[Clinton's handwriting:] Cambridge, Oct. 9, 1865

Dear Clinton

How I have neglected you!

I still do want a nut of Polymnia canadensis. Make it compact & wrap up in a bit of India‑rubber cloth tight ‑ or in a bit of rag ‑ cover with paper, tie up & send by mail, 2 cts per 4 oz

Thomas C. Peters, Moulton, Alabama is a kind fellow, very fond of Botany; a lawyer.

Ask after Rev. Mr. R. D. Nevins of Tuscaloosa, Ala. ‑ an Episcopal clergyman ‑ from Seneca Co., N.Y. Dabbled in secession business, I suppose. No body left in Charleston or near it, but H. W. Ravenel, if there now. And he takes only to fungi.

Paine's Potentilla ‑ from the shore of Lake Ontario is the P. paradoxa.

I am very sorry the aril won't hold in Nymphaea Next summer these things must be looked into for the flowers &c.

Thanks for Isoetes

Let the people who study this genus settle them.

Send Aster azureus in your annual Xmas parcel.

Excuse haste.

Ever.

A. Gray

Recd. Oct. 12. Oct. 19 wrote to Mr. Peters.

Gray's reply is a response to Clinton's request as to botanists in the south. As the Civil War was coming to an end as these men were writing, and as botanical issues were resuming their importance, correspondents were sought in southern states. At this point, little was known as to who had survived and the state of their collections. Clinton would soon start a correspondence with Henry William Ravenel (1814‑1887) of Aiken, South Carolina. Outside of Moses A. Curtis, Ravenel seems to have been the only mycologist in the United States until the flowering of the careers of Job Bicknell Ellis, Charles Peck and William Gibson Farlow later in the 19th century and after the Civil War.

Clinton's concern with southern botanists also had to do with an interest in developing botanical specimens, but also specimens from other areas of natural history, from southern regions, not only the southern United States, but south into Mexico andSouth America. Perhaps this was due in part to the German community making a robust contribution to science in the city of Buffalo and its new Buffalo Society of Natural History, of which Clinton was first president and founding member. German botanists were very aggressive in collecting in the new world, especially those associated with the diaspora from Europe after the failure of the liberal revolutions of the 1840's, particularly the Swiss to the United States, and to Charles Mohr of Mobile, Alabama.

"Thomas C. Peters, Moulton, Alabama is a kind fellow, very fond of Botany; a lawyer." Compared to the reference to Henry William Ravenel, Gray's references to Thomas Peters is extravagant. Gray even received and kept a photo-portrait of Peters and apparently had a good feeling about him. His coolness toward Ravenel, who, after all, was by 1865 the foremost mycologist in the United States, is somewhat mystifying. Peters appears to have been an amateur collector, supplying especially cryptogamic specimens from Alabama to a number of specialists such as Moses Ashley Curtis. Gray's coolness to Ravenel may derive from Ravenel's support of the Confederacy. Gray, as some of his letters to his European colleagues show, was of a grimness toward secessionists as would befit a Roman senator of the Republic.

In the biography of Ravenel by Haygood (1987), reference is made to a strange reserve by Ravenel's colleague in mycology, Moses Curtis, toward the issue of the first fascicle of Ravenel's Fungi Caroliniani Exsiccati (1852). Curtis had initially been a coauthor of the issue of this work, but later abandoned coauthorship, protesting too many demands on his time and energy. When Ravenel distributed this fascicle, Curtis was strangely cool in his acceptance, citing the dread typographical error critique, so powerful in affecting the career of a botanist - seemingly moreso than a botanist's errors in scientific judgement. The other old put-down was the identification of errors in Latin, or use of English words, when the Latin equivalent might be expected. Asa Gray, who was offered a complimentary copy of the exsiccat, declined it. When the review of the exsiccat was prepared by Gray, Curtis made extra special care to see, by recommendation to Gray, that Ravenel was a disappointment and Gray followed suit. Somehow Curtis communicated to Gray that it was Curtis who was the main scientific contributor to the exsiccat and so Gray wrote in his review (Asa Gray, "[Notice of] Fungi Caroliniani Exsiccati. Fungi of Carolina, Illustrated by Natural Specimens of the Species," American Journal of Science and Arts, 2nd ser., XVI (July 1853):129-130. (Haygood pp. 72-73).

It is possible that Gray formed the unfortunate opinion that Ravenel was bogus and the opinion never left him.

Rev. Mr. R. D. Nevins of Tuscaloosa, Ala. ‑ an Episcopal clergyman ‑ from Seneca Co., N.Y

Both Polymnia canadensis and Aster azureus derive from Clinton's rambles at Niagara Falls, both particularly associated with the old woods around DeVeaux College and the stone steps north of there leading the rambler down to the base of the gorge. Polymnia still grows along the steps and in years of high precipitation carpets the stone talus there.

Vol. 2. (24) [D 180]

Cambridge 25th October 1865

Dear Clinton

Polymnia nuts came promptly by mail, and would have done so all the same, had you packed a little moss around them ‑ and that would have been safer ‑ keeping the nutlets from drying. But I trust they will live over winter.

If not, we will try again in the spring.

Your pigeon-hole shall not be pigeoned.

Yes, Lesquereux is, indeed, a most worthy man.

Glad you take to mosses.

In haste.

Ever

A. Gray

Recd. Oct. 27

The Swiss immigrant Leo Lesquereux (1806‑1889) of Columbus, Ohio, would become one of Clinton's most important correspondents, forming a strong bond of friendship through the mails. On August 8th of 1865, Clinton had written to him and had received his first reply on August 19 ‑ a lovely letter that surely gratified Clinton. Lesquereux specialized in paleontology and bryology. He worked with fellow Swiss Louis Agassiz of Harvard and for a while was curator of the Gray Herbarium before moving to Columbus to work on bryophytes with William S. Sullivant.

In 1865, Clinton began to collect mosses and liverworts after forming an association with Mr. Charles Peck, a protege of Clinton's in Peck's post as a curator of the New York State botanical collections in Albany, New York. Clinton worked steadily with the state government in struggling to maintain a salary for Peck's position. Peck's later distinguished career owes everything to Clinton's patronage. For the present, Peck was interested in bryophytes. He would soon realize Leo Lesquereux and others made the field a crowded one, and so later turned, most successfully, to the study of fungi.

Vol. 2. (51) [D 181]

Cambridge Nov. 20, 1865

My dear Clinton

Oh, yes. The Polymnia No. 2, came in beautiful order and was at once planted. I did not mean to tax you again, for the first will doubtless grow ‑ only to [tax?] you for next time. Moss ‑ especially Sphagnum ‑ (and you are well up in mosses now) ‑ will keep the life in anything.

I am at work, when I get a chance ‑ in describing new species of California & Nevada ‑ just now Compositae ‑ some of the nicest things.

Saturday, I was up to 55 years old! Pretty old!

I grieve to hear that Dr. Lindley died Nov. 1 at 66.

Yours ever

A. Gray

Recd. Nov. 22

Clinton was born April 21, 1807, three years ahead of Gray, and would also die, in 1885, three years in advance of him. Clinton was at this time 58 years old.

John Lindley (1799‑1865) was a distinguished British botanist and a prolific writer. Outside of his major works, others include An Outline of the First Principles of Horticulture (1832), An Outline of the Structure and Physiology of Plants (1832), A Natural System of Botany (1836), The Fossil Flora of Great Britain (with William Hutton, 1831‑1837), Flora Medica (1838), Theory of Horticulture (1840), The Vegetable Kingdom (1846), Folia Orchidacea (1852), Descriptive Botany (1858).

Lindley's treatment of descriptive botanical terminology was the model used by Asa Gray in his botanical publications, especially those for students, as well as by J. D. Hooker and his colleague George Bentham in the Genera Plantarum, following Lindley's Introduction to Botany, ed 3 (1839) and his 1847 Elements of Botany ... and a Glossary of technical Terms. London. (Stearn 1983).

Perhaps the Composites of California and Nevada are: Contributions to North American botany published in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Science 1846‑1888: since this letter was in November, it may be assumed that his interest resulted in Proceedings numbers, see Ewan, American Midland Naturalist 22:218‑222 of 1938 (Stafleu 1967) .

Vol. 2. (112) [D 117]

Cambridge 21st December 1865

My good old friend

I receive and duly ponder your exhortation ‑ entreaty, and imploration, of the 15th inst.

It is all right what you say, and it is time to be thinking about the doing over of Manual. But as it may fairly be expected to be the last time I shall do this job, it is best not to be too quick about it.

1. I doubt if the publishers are ready for it yet. The Text Book has equally to be done over.

2. I want 2 & 3 parts of DC. Prodromus, now [...ing], to come out first, ‑ and Hooker and Bentham's Gen. Plantarum to get further on. ‑ And so forth. Also, never do to‑day what you can postpone till tomorrow. But I admit the book is getting shabby & antiquated.

My great hope ‑ my end and aim ‑ is also to do a Synoptic Flora United States in one stout, compact volume ‑ all my endeavors look toward this. But "who is sufficient for these things", and for being College Professor, Director of a Botanic Garden, Curator of an herbarium, consulting botanist to all America I am, and correspondent in general, besides?

Well, you will soon be at Albany to attend Session of Regents, and we look for you, as usual (is it not settled by precedent?) to take Boston, i.e. Cambridge, on your homeward route, and make us the visit we have a right to expect.

Meanwhile my wife and I send you our hearty good wishes for Xmas and New Year season.

Ever Yours cordially

Asa Gray

Recd Dec. 23

This must refer to preparations for Edition 5, issued in 1867, to which George Engelmann contributed several genera, as did J. W. Robbins, C. F. Austin and D. C. Eaton. In this volume the mosses and hepatics would be excluded. the Edition 6 of 1890 would be revised by Sereno Watson and John M. Coulter with contributions by M. S. Bebb, L. H. Bailey, who did the genus Carex ‑ rather suprising when one associates the Rosaceae with his name. Also D. C. Eaton and hepatics by L. M. Underwood. The mosses, however, were omitted.

The Prodromus, a massive, 17 volume collaborative effort by European botanists, the whole edited by the two Swiss botanists de Candolle, began with the first volume in 1856, and edited by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle (1778‑1841). The succeeding volumes were edited by Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyramus de Candolle (1806‑1893) both Swiss, as were Leo Lesquereux and Louis Agassiz. Gray was awaiting the second part of volume 7, issued in mid July of 1868. The eighth volume would not come out until late 1873 (Stafleu 1967). This was rather like the New York State botanist waiting for the volumes of the Flora Europaea coming out when preparing the state checklist. Today the multi‑volume issues of the Flora of North America are anxously awaited by all preparing state and general floras in the United States, Canada and those interested in the flora of Greenland.

Gray was also awaiting publication of part 3 of the first volume of the Genera plantarum that would be issued in September 1867. There would be four additional volumes after the 1867 volume.

Gray's last ambition (he died in 1888) was to produce the Synoptical Flora of North America (1878‑1897). Two volumes were produced, the first volume with apparently three parts. Volume 2, part 1 was issued in May of 1878 by Asa Gray, the second part of volume 1 in 1884. The first and second parts of volume 1 were issued in 1895 and 1897, co‑authored by S. Watson and B. L. Robinson. Sereno Watson was to prepare the sixth revision of Gray's Manual as well (Stafleu 1967).