Gray’s Manual of Botany, first published in 1848 by Asa Gray (1810–1888) under the title Manual of the Botany of Northern United States, was one of the first guides to the identification of plants of eastern North America. The publication contained keys and thorough descriptions of plants. The eighth, and centennial, edition was largely rewritten and expanded by Merritt Lyndon Fernald (1873–1950) and published in 1950. This edition was corrected and updated by R. C. Rollins and reprinted in 1987 by Dioscorides Press.