You ask me whether I am desirous of obtaining the plants peculiar to New York, New Jersey, etc., or of European plants. I should be highly gratified by receiving any plants you think proper to send me; and will repay you, so far as in my power, by transmitting specimens of all the interesting plants I discover. I know little of exotic botany, having no foreign specimens. I am particularly attached to the study of the grasses, ferns, etc. If you have any specimens to transmit to me, please leave them with Mr. Franklin Brown, Attorney at Law, Inns of Court, Beekman Street, who will forward them to me by the earliest opportunity.
During the next summer, I intend to visit the western part of this State, also Ohio and Michigan. I shall devote a large portion of my time to the collection of the plants of the places I visit. If you know of any interesting localities, or where any interesting plants could be procured, please inform me, and I will endeavor to obtain them for you.
Respectfully yours,
Asa Gray.
Bridgewater, April 6, 1832.
Having a convenient opportunity of sending to you, I improve it to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of October 6, and of the very interesting and valuable package of plants which was duly received a few weeks afterwards. In the course of the ensuing summer, I shall be able to supply you with an additional supply of most of the plants mentioned in your list. Many of these were collected during an excursion to the western part of the State, and are not found in this section of the country.
I have given a copy of this list to my friend Dr. N. W. Folwell of Seneca County, an industrious collector, who is situated in a section rich in plants, and requested him to transmit specimens of these and other interesting plants to you. I think he will be able to furnish you with many interesting plants from that section of country, and I shall be grateful for any favors you may have in your power to confer upon him. I shall be engaged the ensuing summer at Fairfield and at Salina, where I hope to make some interesting collections in natural history. If it is not too much trouble and the specimen is within your reach, may I ask further information with regard to No. 34, in my last package to you. It is a Carex, from the shore of Lake Erie,—growing with C. lupulina but flowering later. Is it not a var. of C. lupulina? from which it appears to differ principally in its pedunculate spikes? It flowers a month later than C. lupulina (August 6).
Will you excuse me for troubling you on another subject? I shall not be able to remain much longer in this place, unless I engage in the practice of medicine under circumstances which will altogether preclude me from paying any further attention to natural history. My friends advise me to spend a few years in a milder climate, our family being predisposed to phthisis, although I am perfectly healthy and robust; and such a course would be very agreeable to me, as I could combine the study of natural history with the professional business which will be necessary for my support. I have thought of the Southern States, but I have for some time been inclined to prefer Mexico, both on account of the salubrity of its climate, and of its botanical and mineralogical riches, which so far as I know have never been very thoroughly explored. My object in troubling you with all this is merely to obtain some information with regard to the natural history of that country. Has the country been explored by any botanist since Humboldt in 1803? And is there still room enough in that branch to repay one for devoting a few years to its investigations?
I am young (twenty-one), without any engagements to confine me to this section of country, and prefer the study of botany to anything else. Although I have not arrived at any positive determination, I have commenced the study of the Spanish language, and find it (with the aid of Latin and French) quite easy. I should be pleased to have your advice on this subject, as you have many sources of information which are beyond my reach. I should be highly gratified if you would state to me what you think of the prospects in Mexico for a person under my circumstances, and whether any other section of country or any other situation presents greater inducements. Under whatever circumstances I may be placed, it will be gratifying to me to continue a correspondence which has, thus far, been so useful to me, and I shall always wish to do all in my power to render it interesting to you. I shall be ready to leave this place by 1st of September next, at which time I shall probably visit New York. Will you write me on this subject as soon as convenient, and very much oblige,
Yours truly,
A. Gray.