Asa Gray

Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) was an American botanist, professor of natural history at Harvard University, and prolific author. He was elected in 1841 a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1848 a Member of the American Philosophical Society. In 1863 the U.S. Congress created the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and Gray was appointed one of the original fifty Members.

Quotes

The two Biological Sciences, ... considered as parts of Natural History, 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.
- Structural botany. Volume 1 of Botanical Text-book by Asa Gray (6th ed.). American Book Company. 1879. p. 1. (1st edition published in 1842 with the title The Botanical Text-Book for Colleges, Schools and Private Students)

Wherefore, in Galileo's 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 new doctrine was better then old one, after all, at least for those who had nothing to unlearn.
- Natural Selection Not Inconsistent with Natural Theology: A Free Examination of Darwin's Treatise on the Origin of Species, and of Its American Reviewers. London: Trübner & Company. 1861. p. 3. (55 pages; reprint of article published in 3 parts in the 1860 July, August & October issues of The Atlantic Monthly)

Between the doctrines of this volume and those of the other great naturalist whose name adorns the title-page of this journal [Mr. Agassiz], 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.
- "book review of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection". Darwiniana: Essays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism. D. Appleton. 1889. pp. 9–61. (396 pages; originally published in the March 1860 issue of the American Journal of Science and Arts; quotes from pp. 11–12)

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 Prof. Sargent 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.”
- W. Botting Hemsley, (9 January 1890) "review of Scientific Papers of Asa Gray, selected by Charles Sprague Sargent". Nature 41: 221–222. DOI:10.1038/041221a0.