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Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His ''Darwiniana'' was also considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually exclusive. Gray was Harvard University's botany professor for several decades. Gray regularly corresponded with, and visited, many of the leading natural scientists of the era, including Charles Darwin, who held a high regard for Gray. Gray also made several trips to Europe to collaborate with leading European scientists of the era, as well as trips to the southern and western United States. He also built an extensive network of specimen collectors. A prolific writer of books, he was instrumental in unifying the taxonomic knowledge of the plants of North America. Of Gray's many works on botany, the most popular was his ''Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States, from New England to Wisconsin and South to Ohio and Pennsylvania Inclusive''. Gray was the sole author of the first five editions of the book and co-author of the sixth, with botanical illustrations by Isaac Sprague. Known simply as ''Gray's Manual'', it has gone through further editions, and remains a standard in the field. ==Early life and education== Gray was born in Sauquoit, New York in November 18, 1810 to Moses Gray (b. February 26. 1786), then a tanner, and Roxanna Howard Gray (b. March 15, 1789). Gray was born in the back of his father's tannery and was the eldest of their eight children. Gray's Scotch-Irish Presbyterian ancestors moved to New York from Massachusetts and Vermont after Shays' Rebellion. His paternal great-grandfather arrived in Boston from Northern Ireland in 1718. His parents married July 30, 1809. Gray was an avid reader even in his youth. Tanneries needed a lot of wood to burn and the lumber supply in the area had been shrinking. So Gray's father used his profits to buy farms in the area and about 1823 sold the tannery and became a farmer. Gray completed Clinton Grammar School from about 1823 to 1825. During this time he read many books from the nearby library at Hamilton College. Then in 1825 he enrolled at Fairfield Academy, switching to its Fairfield Medical College, also known as the Medical College of the Western District of Fairfield, in autumn 1826. It was during this time that Gray began to mount botanical specimens. On a trip to New York City, he attempted to meet with John Torrey to get assistance in identifying specimens, but Torrey was not home, so Gray left the specimens at Torrey's house. Torrey was so impressed with Gray's specimens that he began a correspondence with Gray. Gray graduated and became an M.D. in February 1831, even though he was not yet 21 years of age, which was a requirement at the time. Gray did open a medical office in Bridgewater, New York, though he never truly practiced medicine as he enjoyed botany more. Bridgewater is where he had served an apprenticeship with Doctor John Foote Trowbridge while he was in medical school. It was around this time that he began making exploring expeditions in New York and New Jersey. By autumn 1831 he had essentially given up his medical practice to devote more time to botany. In 1832 he began teaching chemistry, mineralogy, and botany at Bartlett's High School, in Utica, New York and also at Fairfield Medical School. This was because the school's instructors had died in mid-term. Gray agreed to teach for one year, which included a break from August–December 1832. This job caused him to cancel his plans for an expedition to Mexico, which at the time included what is now the southwestern United States. Gray first met Torrey in person in September 1832 and they went on an expedition to New Jersey. After finishing teaching in Utica on August 1, 1833, Gray became an assistant to John Torrey of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. By this time Gray was corresponding and trading specimens with botanists not just in America, but Asia, Europe, and the Pacific Islands as well. Gray had a temporary teaching position in 1834 at Hamilton College. Due to funding shortages, in 1835 Gray left his job as Torrey's assistant and in February or March 1836 became Curator and Librarian at the Lyceum of Natural History in New York, which is now called the New York Academy of Sciences. He had an apartment in their new building in Manhattan. Torrey's attempt to get Gray a job at Princeton University was unsuccessful, as were other attempts to find him a position in science. Despite no longer working as his assistant, Torrey and Gray became lifelong friends and colleagues. It was Torrey's wife, Eliza Torrey, who had a profound impact upon Gray in that his manners, tastes, habits, and religious life manners. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Asa Gray」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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