TO W. J. HOOKER.
December 3, 1849.
... We are glad to hear what fine discoveries your son is making in Thibet, etc.
I saw to-day for the first time, at Green’s, the Himalaya Rhododendrons....
I have just parted from Harvey, who has passed seven weeks with us, and having finished his course at the Lowell with much acceptance now joins his friends at New York and Philadelphia till Christmas, and then goes south to Florida, Alabama, and probably either to Jamaica (where Dr. Alexander now is) or to the mountains at the St. Iago end of Cuba, a terra incognita nearly. Harvey is a most winning man; my wife and I have become extremely attached to him, and are sorry to part with him.
We do not mean to let any naturalist be idle who comes to this country, so he is already engaged to give illustrations of our peculiar Algæ for the Smithsonian contributions and to prepare (after his return home, of course) a manual of United States Algæ after the fashion of his second edition of “British Algæ.” There will be no small demand for it....
P. S.—Mr. Wright got through to El Paso in southern New Mexico, and is on his way back, with, he says, a fine collection.
We got some fine daguerreotypes of Harvey, so much better, he says, than he has seen in England that he has had an extra one taken for Lady Hooker.
TO GEORGE BENTHAM.
Cambridge, January 7, 1850.