TO JOHN TORREY.
March 29, 1848.
Your parcel came to-day; many thanks. After dinner I have just looked over the Mexican Compositæ of Gregg,[153] which are numerous, and quite a bonne bouche. My old love of the dear pappose creatures revived at the sight, and I longed to take them by the beard. If at liberty to do so (am I?) I think I will, at the same time I do the Santa-Féans; and at the same time I will study any of Abert’s or Emory’s Mexican or North Spain Compositæ you have not already disposed of. As to the parcel to be divided, of which there are no duplicates, whoever packed your parcel has taken care that there shall be pieces enough, if no specimens! They were in longer paper than the other bundles; not protected by binder’s board, and therefore both ends, for two or three inches, were nicely bent up against the ends of the shorter bundle next them; which was very pretty for the shape of the parcel, but death to many of the plants; for the fold came just below the heads in most cases, too many of which were decapitated like the victims of the (last but two) French revolution.
I have been going on with recitations for some time, twice a week (two hours), and to-day I began my lectures to the whole Junior class, on Geographical Botany for the present.
What with these duties, superintending gardener, and painting and papering in the house, and Sprague drawing for the second volume of “Genera,” and I printing the first, with the printer ever on my heels for copy, and at the same time printing Memoirs and Proceedings of the Academy, and managing large correspondence, you may conceive that my hands are full.
Yours most cordially,
A. Gray.
TO W. J. HOOKER.
Cambridge, 2d May, 1848.
I send ... a copy (roughly put into paper covers) of the first volume of “Genera Illustrata,” regretting there is not time to send you a bound copy. I hope you will like it. Sprague is improving fast, reads Brown’s papers, etc., and is getting a good insight into structural botany, even the nicest points. We mean to carry on the work, and I hope for considerable London sale of it. The price is $6, or in London, £1 10s., which I trust will be thought low. Please notice it in the “Journal.” The proceeds go principally to support Sprague in carrying on the work. I put his name on the title-page without his knowledge and at the expense of his great modesty.
I want to introduce the tussock grass on our eastern coast, where it will thrive well. Is it too late to send this spring? Or will you send in autumn?