It will be the 20th October ere I can hope to take you by the hand. Truly welcome are the newspapers you have kindly sent; but I hope for more by the next mail, for I have none later than the middle of September.
I never have been so hurried, and had so little time to write, but shall have the more to tell when I reach you, if it please Providence. Excuse chirography also, for pen and ink are wretched and my hands sore.
Aster Curtisii abounds and is very showy. A. Elliottii takes here the place of A. puniceus. I have found A. mirabilis.
Love to all, most warmly. Don’t fail to mention me to dear Herbert.
Monday morning.—Off for Hickory-Nut Gap, where the scenery is said to be very grand, and the botanizing good. I am to get there Asplenium pinnatifidum, Stuartia pentagyna, and Parnassia asarifolia. Hard work, yet pleasant with a companion. I wish you could be with me.
Very pleasant Sunday service in the Presbyterian church here.
TO GEORGE ENGELMANN.
Cambridge, November 4, 1843.
I have been absent in the mountains of Virginia and Carolina—after live plants—from 11th August to yesterday; which will be my excuse for not replying to your letter of September 15th. I hope in the mean time you have found some way to send the roots you proposed. There are now connected express lines all the way through. L. & P. Franciscus & Company, No. 90 North Main St., St. Louis, are the agents of Brown & Company Express, Philadelphia; this connects with Harnden’s Express to Boston, the speediest and cheapest method of sending when the package or box is not large, and speed is desirable....
Gaura Lindheimeri is a very fine plant, and flowered fully three months in our Garden. I am having a drawing—hoping to publish it sometime. I want more seeds of Œnothera rhombipetala. Ours flowered while I was away, and was killed by the frost, so that I secured no drawing. Send me all the seeds you can.