Invention Timeline - Asa Gray, American Inventor; Classifed Species on the Natural Basis of Affinity with Dr. John Torrey
b. November 18, 1810 and d. ?
American inventor. From 1842-1873 he was Professor at Harvard. With Dr. John Torrey, he classified species on the natural basis of affinity. In 1874 he was Regent of the Smithsonian Institute. From 1863-’73 he was President of the Amer. Acad. of Arts and Sciences, and in 1872 of the Amer. Assn. for the Adv. of Science.
Lo! on each seed, within its slender rind,
Life’s golden threads in endless circles wind;
Maze within maze the lucid webs are rolled,
And as they burst, the living flame unfold.
The pulply acorn, ere it swells, contains
The oak’s vast branches in its milky veins,
Each raveled bud, fine film, and fiber-line,
Traced with nine pencil on the small design,
The young Narcissus, in its bulb compressed,
Cradles a second nestling on its breast,
In whose fine arms a younger embryo lies,
Folds its thin leaves, and shuts its floret-eyes;
Grain within grain, successive harvests dwell,
And boundless forests slumber in a shell.
See’st thou yon fern and tree, the herb, the flower,
Have they not life as thine, and health and power?
Do they not breathe, and eat, and drink, to be?
Something they have in common, man, with thee.
Watch their emotion when the cold north wind
Blows on the flowers; do they not try to find
Some shelter ‘neath their leaves? Then bow their heads
Away from hurting winds. But if instead
Of cold the beneficent sun should shine,
How glad all nature grows!
—John P. Morris
