Gray

Asa, an American botanist; born in Paris, Oneida co., N. Y., Nov. 18, 1810. He took his degree of M. D. in 1831, but soon relinquished the practice of medicine, and devoted himself to botany. In 1842 he became Fisher Profe or of Natural History at Harvard. In 1873 he retired from the chair, but still retained charge of the great herbarium he had presented to the university in 1864; and in 1874 he succeeded Aga iz as a regent of the Smithsonian Institution. He ranked among the leading botanists of his age, and became an influential supporter of the Darwin i an theories of evolution. He died in Cambridge, Ma ., Jan. 30, 1888. As a little child Asa Gray drove a horse for the bark mill in a tannery. He went to the country school when three years old. He has a place in the Hall of Fame of New York University.