Gray’s School and Field Book of Botany. Consisting of “Lessons in Botany”, and “Field, Forest, and Garden Botany”, bound in one volume

Asa Gray graduated from medical school, but never practiced medicine. An assistantship with botanist John Torrey led to a life long career in botany, culminating in a professorship at Harvard. Unlike fellow Harvard professor and naturalist Louis Agassiz, however, Gray became an early champion of Darwinism. He remained a dedicated teacher and writer up until his death by stroke at age seventy-eight. Works include Elements of Botany (1836), How Plants Behave (1872), and Darwiniana (1876), among others.