Asa Gray

"Between the doctrines of this volume and those of the other great naturalist whose name adorns the title-page of this journal , the widest divergence appears. It is interesting to contrast the two, and, indeed, is necessary to our purpose; for this contrast brings out most prominently, and sets in strongest light and shade, the main features of the theory of the origination of species by means of Natural Selection. The ordinary and generally-received view assumes the independent, specific creation of each kind of plant and animal in a primitive stock, which reproduces its like from generation to generation, and so continues the species."

"No more fitting monument could have been raised to the memory of the late Dr. Asa Gray—who was almost as well known to botanists on this side of the Atlantic as on the other—than a reprint of a selection o his numerous writings. During a period of upwards of fifty years he was actively engaged in the investigation and publication of the botany of North America, and studies of a wider range. As says, in his preface to the present collection, “The number of his contributions to science and their variety is remarkable, and astonishes his associates even, familiar as they were with his intellectual activity, his various attainments, and that surprising industry which neither assured position, the weariness of advancing years, nor the hopelessness of the task he had imposed upon himself, ever diminished.”"

"The two Biological Sciences, ... considered as parts of , are Zoology and Botany. The latter is the natural history of the Vegetable Kingdom. It embraces every scientific inquiry that can be made respecting plants, their nature, their kinds, the laws which govern them, and the part they play in the general economy of the world."

"Wherefore, in Galileos time, we might have helped to proscribe, or to burn — had he been stubborn enough to warrant cremation — even the great pioneer of inductive research; although, when we had fairly recovered our composure, and had leisurely excogitated the matter, we might have come to conclude that the was better then , after all, at least for those who had nothing to unlearn."