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Friends, Family And Contemporaries Of Charles Darwin
ASA GRAY: HIS LIFE AND WORK
BY MRS. MARY TREAT. 1890
The fossil strata show us that Nature began with rudimental forms, and rose to the more complex, as fast as the earth was fit for their dwelling-place; and that the lower perish, as the higher appear. Very few of our race can be said to be yet finished men. We still carry sticking to us some remains of the preceding inferior quadruped organization. We call these millions men; but they are not yet men. Half-engaged in the soil, pawing to get free, man needs all the music that can be brought to disengage him. If Love, red Love, with tears and joy; if Want with his scourge; if War with his cannonade; if Christianity with its charity; if Trade with its money; if Art with its portfolios; if Science with her telegraphs through the deeps of space and time; can set his dull nerves throbbing, and by loud taps on the tough chrysalis, can break its walls, and let the new creature emerge erect and free, — make way, and sing paean! The age of the quadruped is to go out, — the age of the brain and of the heart is to come in. The time will come when the evil forms we have known can no more be organized. Man's culture can spare nothing, wants all the material. He is to convert all impediments into instruments, all enemies into power. The formidable mischief will only make the more useful slave. And if one shall read the future of the race hinted in the organic effort of Nature to mount and meliorate, and the corresponding impulse to the Better in the human being, we shall dare affirm that there is nothing he will not overcome and convert, until at last culture shall absorb the chaos and gehenna. He will convert the Furies into Muses, and the hells into benefit. Culture.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
Now and then a man arises whose life and works are of such magnitude that he shapes the intellectual growth of a nation or a civilization, moulding and turning thought into a new channel. Charles Darwin, like Copernicus, advanced such revolutionary doctrines. As Copernicus taught the world the now received system of astronomy, so Darwin has taught the origin of species by Natural Selection. Before Copernicus the world did not move it was permanent, fixed, central. So before Darwin the species which exist on the earth were regarded as permanent and fixed, each having been produced by a special creation. But this belief is fast disappearing, and we are living to see Darwin's teachings recognized not by the slow process by which the Copernican system came to be accepted, but with rapid strides due to the advanced thinkers of our time, who see and grasp the "new thought" as men could not do in the time of Copernicus.
Copernicus drew upon himself and his theory the condemnation of the Church of Rome, which was not obliterated until 1821, two hundred and eighty-seven years after it was issued! And Galileo, who followed Copernicus a century later, was imprisoned in the cells of the Inquisition for teaching the heretical doctrine that the earth moves. Surely the world has advanced during the past four centuries, so that in our time "heresy" simply meets with disapproval and ridicule.
It is not so many years since the Darwinian theory was first promulgated, that we cannot remember the fierce opposition and ridicule with which it was received, both by the pulpit and the press. Then, it needed courage and boldness to be its advocate. In this country, one of its earliest disciples was Asa Gray, who bravely stepped to the front of the battle and made havoc in the ranks of Darwin's opposers, until, largely through, his influence, there came to be a wide-spread recognition of the doctrine of Evolution among the leading representatives of biological science. Indeed, we may say that at the present time this recognition is practically universal.
Asa Gray was born on the 18th of November, 1810, in Oneida County, New York, a few miles south from Utica. He was the eldest of eight children, and from his earliest years a wide-awake, active child, energetic and studious, winning the prize of a spelling-book before he was three years of age. When six and seven years old he was the champion speller in the district school. Following him along in his boyhood we learn that, when eleven years of age, having exhausted the district-school at home, he was sent to a grammar-school in Clinton, where he staid two years, and then entered Fairfield Academy, where he remained until his father desired him to leave the Academy and enter the Fairfield Medical School. This was in the winter of 1826-27. He finished his medical course and received his degree of Doctor of Medicine in the spring of 1831.
While in this Medical School in the winter of 1827-28 his attention was aroused in botany by reading an article in the "Edinborongh Encyclopsedia." He soon obtained Eaton's Botany, which he studied with increasing interest through the Winter, and longed for Spring that he might test his knowledge in consulting the flora around him. When Spring came we can imagine something of the delight with which he hailed his first treasure, the little Claytonia Virginica, which he found no difficulty in assigning to its proper place. A new world was now opened around him, and from this time on he saw not as others see. Things were revealed to him that were blindly passed by the world at large. So he became eyes to the blind and a medium of knowledge to many loving followers.
Although he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine, and no doubt would have been a shining light in the world of medical science had he chosen the career of physician, his heart was not there ; it was set on the trees and flowers, the growing things around him, and his far-reaching mind grasped the hidden secrets of Nature which he unveiled to countless numbers of disciples.
In 1834 he became connected with Dr. John Torrey, which resulted in a close relationship and a life-long friendship. For a time he studied botany under Dr. Torrey, but he soon made such rapid strides that he was no longer under but with him in united labor. Together they botanized in northern New York and in the Pine-barrens of New Jersey. In the same year he became Dr. Torrey's assistant in the Chemical Laboratory in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. But he remained in this Medical School only a year or so, as it was not on a sufficiently nourishing financial basis to warrant Dr. Torrey in continuing to employ an assistant. Torrey was instrumental, however, in securing for him the appointment of Curator in the Lyceum of Natural History in New York, so that his botanical work was continued under the inspiring influence of Dr. Torrey for the next four or five years.
In his twenty-fifth year he issued two volumes on the grasses and sedges, each describing a hundred species, and illustrated by dried specimens. Among the grasses was one new to science, Pancicum Xanthophysum, which was the first of the thousands of unknown species afterward named by him. In 1836 he began his contributions to the American Journal of Science, which he continued for more than fifty years, and he also became one of the editors of this journal, which place he filled for thirty-five years. About this time (1835-36) he commenced the preparation of the "Elements of Botany," which he published in 1836. This work was characterized by such a vigorous style and breadth of treatment that it at once attracted the attention of scientists, and paved the way for universal recognition by the great botanists of Europe whom he visited in 1838. This visit was made necessary to enable him to go on with the "North American Flora," of which he was, at that early age, joint author with Dr. Torrey. Young as he was, hearts were opened and hands held out to him by such men as Robert Brown, De Candolle, the elder Hooker, Lambert, Bentham and Lindley, at that time the leading botanists of Europe. He also met the younger Hooker, then a medical student in Glasgow, and here the foundation was laid for their life-long friendship. Hooker, no less than Gray, was destined to become one of the leading scientists of his time a great explorer and author, and President of the Koyal Society. He also followed his illustrious father as Director of the Royal Gardens at Kew, which position he still holds.
In this brief sketch it will be impossible to follow Dr. Gray closely in his travels, or to enumerate the great men he met during the year he remained abroad. But he returned home full of inspiration, with enlarged views, and well equipped for the work he had in hand. In the American Journal of Science (April, 1841) he published a very interesting article, giving an account of the herbaria he examined during this visit, commencing with that of Linnaeus, which is told in such a happy manner that it cannot fail to interest all lovers of good reading. In. 1842, the Fellows of Harvard College offered him the Fisher Professorship of Natural History, which had just then been founded under the will of Dr. Fisher. At the time of Dr. Gray's appointment there was no botanical library and no herbarium in the College, and the botanical garden was hardly more than a name. What are they today the magnificent library, the great herbarium, and the garden! Had Dr. Gray done nothing more for the advancement of science than the building up of these, this alone would have made him immortal.
The same year that he was made Professor in the College he published his botanical text-book, "Structural and Systematic Botany," which was by far the most comprehensive and valuable work on botany that had appeared in our country. It has passed through six editions, each improved and almost wholly rewritten. The last edition, published in 1879, was entirely rewritten. In 1848 his "Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States" was printed. For more than thirty years this book has been without a rival. It has been the text-book for all botanists in the Eastern, Middle, and Northern States east of the Mississippi. It is so plain and simple in its language that anyone with a natural love of plants needs no other instructor to enable him to become well-versed in the flora of these regions. The influence that this book has wrought in schools and among the people, in arousing an interest in botany, is beyond calculation. It has passed through five editions and several issues. In the first edition he expresses his gratitude to Dr. Torrey in the following inscription :
TO
JOHN TORREY, M.D.,
Corresponding member of the Liunaean Society, etc.,
THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR,
In grateful acknowledgment of the friendship which has
honored
and the counsel which has aided him from the commencement of his
botanical pursuits.
The last edition was published in 1867. This also bears testimony of his continued love and hearty friendship for Dr. Torrey, in the following dedicatory note :
TO JOHN TORRE Y, L.L.D.
Almost twenty years have passed since the first edition of this work was dedicated to you, more than thirty, since, as your pupil, I began to enjoy the advantage of being associated with you in botanical pursuits, and in a lasting friendship. The flow of time has only deepened the sense of gratitude due to you from your attached friend, ASA GRAY.
CAMBRIDGE, May 30, 1867.
This was characteristic of Asa Gray he was a steadfast friend, giving and winning affection wherever he went, always acknowledging the helpfulness of others, and often magnifying such assistance.
His "Field, Forest, and Garden Botany," published in 1868, is an admirable guide for the beginner for determining the common cultivated plants as well as the native ones. In order to bring it within the compass of a common-school text-book, it was necessary to condense the descriptions of the wild plants, and to leave out altogether the most rare and obscure ones. This is no detriment to the beginner, rather an advantage, when he has the Manual to follow. Even with all its condensation it contains descriptions of 2650 species, belonging to 947 genera. And the "Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology," which preceded it, with over three hundred original illustrations from Nature by Isaac Sprague, has often been rewritten and improved until made so perfect that seemingly no other book could be made that would be so admirably adapted to our needs.
We must not overlook two other charming little books, "How Plants Grow," first published in 1858, and "How Plants Behave," in 1872. These were written for young people; but many grown people have greatly enjoyed them and drawn inspiration from their pages.
But the greatest of all of Dr. Gray's botanical works is liis "Synoptical Flora of North America," two parts of which have been published, "the first in 1878, being the first part of Vol. II., Gamopetalse after Composites, that is, the portion immediately following the second volume of the Flora of Torrey and Gray; and the second, in 1884, covering the ground (Caprifoliacese to Compositse inclusive) of the second volume of Torrey and Gray's ' Flora.' The middle half of the entire Flora is thus completed. These volumes contain eight hundred and fifty closely printed pages, and it required ten years of excessive and hardly interrupted labor to complete them. They are masterpieces of clear and concise arrangement and of compactness and beauty of method. There will hardly be found in any work of descriptive botany a greater display of learning, clearness of vision and analytical powers ; and few works of systematic botany have ever treated of a broader field." *
* From a sketch of Dr. Gray in the New York Sun of January 3, 188G, by Professor C. S. Sargent.
When we consider how much of the work on nearly all of these educational books with the exception of the "Flora" was accomplished while Dr. Gray scrupulously performed all of his college duties, we get some idea of the magnitude of the man.
His writings and influence have done as much toward the advancement of general science, and especially toward the growth of the doctrine of Evolution, as his text-books have done for the advancement of botany. One of his earliest papers, showing the tendency of his mind in the direction of evolution, was his observations upon the "Relations of the Japanese Flora to that of North America." I will quote what his colleague, Professor C. S. Sargent, says of this work:
In 1854 he published the "Botany of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition," a large quarto volume, accompanied by a folio atlas containing a hundred magnificent plates ; and in 1859 he read his paper, afterward published in the "Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences," upon the "Diagnostic Characters of Certain New Species of Plants, collected in Japan by Charles Wright, with observations upon the Relations of the Japanese Flora to that of North America, and of other parts of the northern temperate zone."
This is Professor Gray's most remarkable contribution to science. It at once raised him to the very highest rank among philosophical naturalists, and attracted to him the attention of the whole scientific world. In this paper he first points out the similarity between the floras of Eastern North America and Japan, a fact he had long suspected, and then explains the peculiar distribution of plants through the Northern Hemisphere, by tracing their direct descent through geological periods from ancestors which flourished when there was a tertiary vegetation. This theory of geographical distribution, now generally adopted by all naturalists, was further elaborated in his lecture upon "Sequoia and its History," delivered in 1872 before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and still later in a lecture entitled "Forest Geography and Archaeology," delivered in 1878 before the Harvard Natural History Society.
These studies of the flora of Japan had doubtless greatly modified Professor Gray's opinion upon the origin of species, a subject which was just then beginning to deeply interest the intellectual world. He, like the younger De Candolle and Hooker, was now ready to admit the doctrine of the local origin of vegetable species, and to discard the hypothesis of a double or multiple origin, at that time and long afterward adhered to by many botanists. That is, he believed that two similar or closely allied species of plants, the one, for example, growing in New England and the other in Japan, were descended from one common although remote ancestor, and that they were not, as Schouw and Agassiz insisted, created separately and independently in the regions where they now exist.
Dr. Gray more than any other man in America has made the doctrine of Evolution what it is today; and he has made Darwin better understood and appreciated than all other writers combined. And yet lie did not wholly agree with Darwin in some particulars. In a letter to Dr. Gray, Mr. Darwin says,
"I grieve to say that I cannot go as far as you do about design. I cannot think the world as we see it is the result of chance, and yet I cannot look at each separate thing as the result of design."
But Dr. Gray was so deeply grounded in the Christian faith, that nothing could swerve him. He believed that the Darwinian theory of the origin of species was entirely reconcilable with, the conception of a Divine Power governing the universe. He believed "that each variation has been specially ordained or led along a beneficial line."
In the closing paragraph of an address delivered before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in 1872, on " Sequoia and its History," he touches the keynote of his religious belief. After quoting Miss Frances Power Cobbe's regrets that we no sooner find out how anything is done, than our first thought is that God did not do it, lie agrees with her that this conclusion is unworthy "nay more, deplorable." Then follows these brief, vivid words: "Through what faults or infirmities of dogmatism on the one hand and skepticism on the other it came to be so thought, we need not here consider. Let us hope, and I confidently expect, that it is not to last; that the religious faith which survived without a shock the notion of the fixity of the earth itself, may equally outlast the notion of the fixity of the species which inhabit it ; that in the future even more than in the past faith in an order which is the basis of science will not as it cannot reasonably be dissevered from faith in an Ordainer, which is the basis of religion."
In 1876 Dr. Gray brought together his various papers on Evolution and kindred subjects, which had appeared in the American Journal of Scie9iee, the Nation, and the Atlantic Monthly, and published them in a book, under the title of "Darwiniana." In the preface to this book he defines his religious belief in a short, clear passage, where it stands to remind us that one of the greatest men of the age found no difficulty in harmonizing the "new thought," or Evolution, with Christianity : " I am scientifically and in my own fashion a Darwinian, philosophically a convinced theist, and religiously an acceptor of the creed commonly called the Nicene, as the exponent of the Christian faith."
His contributions to Evolution, and his views on the subject, are better known to the world at large than "his rank and position as a teacher of natural science." He was a born teacher. He drew students to him by his kindly, genial nature. His interest in their work was a remarkable trait in his character. His correspondents felt his friendly influence permeating their lives, giving them fresh impulse and inspiration in their work. Even students whom he had never met were cordially and most heartily given any assistance in his power, in the way of suggestion and even in mapping out methods of work for them to follow. During all the years of his busy life, helpful, suggestive letters were written with his own hand, encouraging students to go on with their work and publish its results. But for him, the work of many a botanical student would never have been known.
Having access to some of his letters to a correspondent, I have been looking them over with a view to giving a few extracts to illustrate his manner of guiding and instructing. The correspondent had a little plat of ground under observation, which had never been disturbed by man further than in the cutting away of the underbrush and part of the trees; Dr. Gray was given a list of the herbaceous plants that were growing on the spot, and here is his reply:
Tour letter of the 12th, so full of interest, was followed this evening by the box, which I wait for daylight before opening. But I will not delay most hearty thanks for your very kind attention to my requests. I am dreadfully pressed with work now, being on the eve of completing a new lecture-room and cabinet, laboratory, etc., here in the Garden, and many things and various workmen have to be looked after, so that I cannot sit down till night, and then am tired enough. . . .
Your lawn flora is very interesting. Now, you would do a good thing if you would keep a record of this, and next year note any changes i. e., any overcome, or any new-comers. And so on year after year. I anticipate many changes. But as it is, it illustrates Darwin's remark upon the advantages of diversity. You have vastly more vegetation on the space than could be if restricted to one or few species.
There are a good many plants on your lawn which I would gladly have in our Garden. . . .
No, I have not Xerophyllum, nor the lovely Pyxidanthera. I tried both once, and lost them, but I long to try again. Will you help me to them in early Spring ? What did your Penn Yan friend do to make Pyxidanthera grow?
Writing of these plants brings back most vividly my pine barren botanizing of 30 to 35 years ago ! . . .
The above letter was soon followed by another, showing his interest in the correspondent's observations on Drosera. It was understood between Dr. Gray and his correspondent that either could se what the other had written about Drosera and other plants. In one of the letters before me Dr. Gray says, "You can use anything that I say about Drosera for publication, and I want the same privilege."
. . . About the Drosera longifolia (which the species you describe certainly is). The folding of the blade of the leaf itself around the insect, which I understand you to describe, is very interesting, and I have copied your statement for publication. . . . I wish I had a pencil-sketch of this fly-catching. . . . I am preparing a new edition of "How Plants Grow," with three new chapters, viz.,
How Plants move, climb, and take positions.
How Plants employ Insects to work for them.
How certain Plants capture Insects.
This leads me to ask, Have you any butterflies or moths with orchid pollen-masses attached to head or eye ? . . .
Platanthera Ciliaris, how I wanted it last Summer ! If you could find it now roots, even, would delight me. . . .
More than a year after the above letter was penned, we find his interest still continued in Drosera :
Thanks for the plants which came in nice order. . . .
In Spring, as soon as they can be found, I want some bulbs of Drosera Jiliformis, and that you should also make some observations which Darwin wants to be made. But he will write to you.
Two years later he writes about another insectivorous plant:
Thanks for yours of Dec. 2....
The Tribune will be glad to have your article about Bladderwort, pending. As usual, Darwin is ahead of you. But he has published nothing yet, only hints have appeared and he will be pleased that you have hit on it. If you prepare an article for the Tribune I would have some drawings ?nade to show the bladders in wood-cuts.
Always call on me, if I can aid in any way. Dear Dr. Hooker (Kew) has lost his wife suddenly.
Still later, he is interested in the Florida Pinguiculas, and writes under date of March 6, 1S77 :
Those Pincimculas around you are such nice things for their way of cross-fertilizing that I hope you are studying them and seeing what insects do it. . . .
Again on March 16, 1877:
Well, if that little Hymenopter is the right one, his tongue will be long enough to reach from the top of the spur (bottom of sac) down "to the nectar. Please catch and send me one or two, or more, and I will find his name.
Pray work up an article on these Pinguicula.
A bee would fertilize much better than a butterfly, if he could get in as you will see on looking.
What do you say? Shall I send you the "Darwiniana" book, or wait till you come North ? . . .
On May 14th of the same year this paragraph occurs in another letter: "As to Pinguicula, I have had Sprague make good outline-sketches and dissections to show the most, and have laid them up for future use yours and perhaps mine. . . . The printer keeps me awfully busy."
Interested as he was in these insectivorous plants, and especially in Darwin's work, helping him by directing observations on this side of the water and furnishing him directly with material for his forthcoming work on "Insectivorous Plants," yet when the book appeared he was for a long time too busy to read it :
Herbarium of Harvard University,
Botanic Garden, Cambridge, Mass., 29 July, 1875.
You will hardly credit it that I have had Darwin's hook for a fortnight and have not yet found time to read over twenty or thirty pages. That shows you how busy I am, and with much less interesting work but work that is both necessary and pressing.
We can now better understand why Asa Gray was so universally honored and loved by such a wide circle of students and botanists, as well as by many distinguished men in other departments of science. With all his multifarious work, he was ever the kind helper and teacher. Professor Sargent tells us that "he was a foreign member of the Royal Society of London ; he was a foreign member also of the Institute of France, one of the immortal eight'; and long ago he was welcomed into all the less exclusive bodies of European savants. He served the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as its President, presided over the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was a regent of the Smithsonian Institution.' 7 On his seventy-fifth birthday the botanists of our country united in sending him messages of affection and esteem, accompanied by a silver vase. The Botanical Gazette of December, 1885, tells the story of the presentation, and gives a description of the vase as follows:
The vase is about eleven inches high, exclusive of the ebony pedestal, which is surrounded by a hoop of hammered silver, bearing the inscription,
1810 November eighteenth, 1885
ASA GRAY
in token of the universal esteem of American Botanists.
"The lower part of the vase is fluted and the upper part covered with flowers. The place of honor on one side is held by Grayia Polygaloides, and on the other by Shortia galacifolia. On the Grayia side of the prominent plants are Aquilegia Canadensis, Centaurea Americana, Jeffersonia diphylla, Rudbeckia speciosa, and Mitchella repens. On the Shortia side there are Lilium Grayi y Aster Bigelomi, Solidago serotina and Epigaia repens. The lower part of the handles runs into a cluster of Dioncea leaves, which clasps the body of the vase, and their upper parts are covered with Notholcena Grayi. Adlumia cirrhosa trails over the whole background, and its leaves and flowers crop out here and there. The entire surface is 'oxidized,' which gives greater relief to the decorations. The vase was designed by L. E. Jenks, and the chasing was done by Wm. J. Austin, both with Bigelow, Kennard and Co. The heartiest praise has been bestowed upon tho design and the workmanship by all who have seen it.
"By the request of the committee, greetings in the form of cards and letters had been sent by those who gave the vase. These were placed on a simple but elegant silver plate and accompanied the gift. The inscription on the plate reads:
Bearing the Greetings of
One hundred and eighty Botanists
of North America, to
>ASA GRAY,
On his Seventy-fifth Birthday, November 18th, 1885.
"The expressions of affection and respect which are contained in letters to the committee as well as those which were presented to the good Doctor, together with the united and hearty response to the Committee's suggestion, all testify how universal is the esteem and how deep is the affection for this genial man, whom we have thus delighted to honor."
The following response was sent by Dr. Gray :
Herbarium of Harvard University,
Cambridge, Mass., November 19, 1885.
To J. C. Arthur, C. R. Barnes, J. M. Coulter, Committee, and to the numerous Botanical Brotherhood represented by them :
As I am quite unable to convey to you in words any adequate idea of the gratification I received on the morning of the 18th inst., from the wealth of congratulations and expressions of esteem and affection which welcomed my seventy-fifth birthday, I can do no more than to render to each and all my heartiest thanks. Among fellow-botanists, more pleasantly connected than in any other pursuit by mutual giving and receiving, some recognition of a rather uncommon anniversary might naturally be expected. But this full flow of benediction from the whole length and breadth of the land, whose flora is a common study and a common delight, was as unexpected as it is touching and memorable. Equally so is the exquisite vase which accompanied the messages of congratulation and is to commemorate them, and upon which not a few of the flowers associated with my name or with my special studies are so deftly wrought by art that of them one may almost say, "The art itself is nature."
The gift is gratefully received, and it will preserve the memory to those who come after us of a day made by you, dear brethren and sisters, a very happy one to
Yours affectionately, ASA GRAY.
Dr. Gray's correspondence with Darwin dates from 1855, commencing with a request of Darwin for a list of American Alpine plants. From this time on their correspondence continued, and their friendship was close and intimate until Mr. Darwin's death, as is shown in "Darwin's Life and Letters," and also in Dr. Gray's printed writings.
In 1885, Dr. Gray's portrait was made in bronze by St. Gaudens, and presented to Harvard University. But one of the best pictures that has been left to us was taken while he was 011 a botanical excursion in tlie Rocky Mountains. It represents a group of botanists in camp on Yeta Pass, 9000 feet above the sea. Dr. Gray sits on the ground beneath the trees, with uncovered head, holding evidences of his work in a well-filled botanical press. Sir Joseph Hooker is by his side, with freshly gathered plants in his hand. Mrs. Gray is at the table dispensing tea to Dr. Hayden, Dr. Lamborn, Stevenson, and other distinguished members of the party. It is a vivid, life-like scene a picture cherished by many.
But Asa Gray's memory will be perpetuated and cherished without the aid of pictures, it is forever associated with natural objects more enduring than the monumental shaft. The loftiest peak of the Rocky Mountains bears his name, and many lowly plants in the vales commemorate it, breathing it anew in their annual resurrection. These will keep his memory fresh through the ages to come. His work and deeds can never die. Our own poet of Nature has said of Truth, " The eternal years of God are hers." All the labors and all the thoughts of Asa Gray were consecrated to the discovery and service of the Truth and by this loving constancy of devotion they are assured an immortality of beneficent influence.
