otanist.

Asa Gray did not devote himself to abstract science alone; he wrote as
successfully for the student as for the professional naturalist.
His long list of educational works have no equals in accuracy and
in beauty and compactness of expression. They have had a remarkable
influence upon the study of botany in this country during the half
century which has elapsed since the first of the series appeared.

Botany, moreover, did not satisfy that wonderful intellect, which hard
work only stimulated but did not weary, and one of Asa Gray's chief
claims to distinction is the prominent and commanding position he took
in the great intellectual and scientific struggle of modern times, in
which, almost alone and single handed he bore in America the brunt of
the disbelief in the Darwinian theory shared by most of the leading
naturalists of the time.

But the crowning labor of Asa Gray's life was the preparation of
a descriptive work upon the plants of North America. This great
undertaking occupied his attention and much of his time during
the last forty years of his life. Less fortunate than his greatest
botanical contemporary, George Bentham, who turned from the last page
of corrected proof of his work upon the genera of plants to the bed
from which he was never to rise again, Asa Gray's great work is left
unfinished. The two volumes of the "Synoptical Flora of North America"
will keep his memory green, however, as long as the human race is
interested in the study of plants.

But his botanical writings and his scientific fame are not the most
valuable legacy which Asa Gray has left to the American people. More
precious to us is the example of his life in this age of grasping
materialism. It is a life that teaches how industry and unselfish
devotion to learning can attain to the highest distinction and the
most enduring fame. Great as were his intellectual gifts, Asa Gray was
greatest in the simplicity of his character and in the beauty of his
pure and stainless life.

* * * * *

It is with genuine regret that we read the announcement of the
discontinuance of the _Gardener's Monthly_. It is like reading of
the death of an old friend. Ever since we have been interested in the
cultivation of flowers we have looked to the _Monthly_ for inspiration
and advice, and its pages have rarely been turned without finding
the assistance we stood in need of. But, fortunately, the _Gardener's
Monthl