The 3d and 4th parts of our “Flora,” of which you speak so favorably, were sent to you through Baron Delessert, as I have already apprised you. By the time this work is completed we shall have settled somewhat accurately the geographical range of our plants, and have laid a good foundation for the comparison of our flora with that of other regions, etc. We shall soon begin to print the “Compositæ,” and I trust in early spring we may see the second volume nearly or quite completed. Pray send me sometimes loose sheets of your articles or notices (those of your father and yourself) in the “Bibliothèque Universelle.” I will sometimes translate them, if you do not object, or otherwise notice them, for the “American Journal of Science and Arts.”
TO W. J. HOOKER.
New York, 15th January, 1841.
The dedication of the “Flora” we felt to be both a privilege and a duty; its favorable reception on your part gives us real pleasure.
I hope I have not offended Link by overstating his age. I am pretty sure I was so informed by Klotzsch who ought to know. You will now and then see some little articles or notices of mine in “Silliman’s Journal.” I prepare these notices merely to awaken and deepen the interest of our scattered botanists and lovers of plants, most of whom see that journal, and few of whom have any other means of knowing what is going on in the botanical world. We have, however, a few promising fellows who take the “Journal of Botany” or something of the kind. Should I have anything to communicate of interest to any other than our local botanists, I shall publish of course under my own name. You will receive with this a little notice of some European herbaria, which, commonplace as it must be on your side of the water, is useful to our own people. I have been as brief as I could, and have taken the pains to drop the first person singular. I am not sure but I have already sent you a copy through Mr. Pamphlin. Poor Rafinesque,[123] you know, perhaps, is dead; and I have attempted the somewhat ungracious task of giving some account of his botanical writings, which I will send you when printed.
I find that Townsend, Nuttall’s companion, published, while I was abroad, an account of their journey. I have never seen a copy, and am told it is out of print; but I must try to find a copy for you. Townsend being poor, Nuttall waived his intention of publishing in his favor. I have heard that Townsend wishes to make a journey as collector of birds, plants, etc. I wish he would go to the southern Rocky Mountains, and trace them into New Spain. Nuttall has brought home the Grayia. Have you ever received any more of Nuttall’s plants, or has Boott? He is selling them to different persons for ten dollars per hundred; just such specimens as you received through Boott, or sometimes much better and more copious ones. I have some of his Compositæ in my hands, which Webb has ordered. He has a considerable number of Oregon and Californian Compositæ which Douglas did not get (and he failed to meet with many of Douglas’s), and others in the States; as Pyrrocoma with rays. Nuttall ought to send all these to you.... I know with considerable accuracy what plants (Compositæ) are desiderata with you; and I will take the liberty of writing at once to Nuttall, and asking for such in your name. I shall ask for about one hundred Compositæ, and will extend the order to other plants if you desire it. He has, however, distributed nothing beyond Compositæ. Pray let me know at once if I have done rightly in this....
Among Drummond’s Louisiana plants is the rarest of all United States Compositæ, Stokesia cyanea. It was pointed out to me by Arnott (January, 1839), but I have just examined Greene’s specimens.
A. G.
New York, 20th May, 1841.
I have diligently labored about four months at Aster, in which, as I have after all not satisfied myself, I can scarcely hope to satisfy others; but I do think I have laid a foundation for the student of the species in their wild state. We had very copious materials, but could have done little in comparison without the aid of your collection, for which we cannot be too grateful. I am now occupied with Solidago, which is difficult enough, no doubt but not to be compared with Aster in this respect, partly because there are fewer species, and the synonymy much less involved, but chiefly because there are few in cultivation.