We are bound to know the botany of the parts of Mexico on our frontier, and so must even do the work. Pringle goes back there directly, with increased facilities, and will give special attention to the points of territory which I regard as most hopeful.
Trelease,[137] our most hopeful young botanist,—established at St. Louis,—is here for a part of the winter, to edit a collection of the scattered botanical publications of Engelmann which Shaw pays for—or at least pays for to a large extent. He would have the plates and figures, and that will double the cost and the sum Shaw offered to provide. We may have to sell some of the edition in order to recoup the charges....
Yes, you hit a blot. I can see to all my own books, such as the “Synoptical Flora.” But, somehow, I cannot restrain the publishers from altering the date of their title-pages when they print off a new issue from the stereotype plates....
What do I call an alpine plant? Why, one that has its habitat above the limit of trees—mainly—though it may run down lower along streams. But in a dry region, where forest has no fair chance, we might need to mend the definition.
Upon your paper, I got a few notes—offhand, by references.
I premise that in New England we have two places where several alpine plants are stranded at lower levels than they ought, peculiar conditions of configuration and shelter having preserved them, while the exposed higher grounds have lost them. They are Willoughby Mountain and the Notch of Mt. Mansfield, Vermont.
As to your III. Of the whole list of alpine plants of Oregon and northward and not of California, I can put my hand upon only two that are yet known in California, viz., Armania verna and Vaccinium cæspitosum, which comes in its var. arbuscula only.
There is a great lack of alpine arctic plants in California. First, because there is not much place for them now; secondly, because there have been such terrible and vast volcanic deposits—lava and ashes—that they must have been all killed out.
But for all these matters we shall one of these days have fuller and surer data—after my day. Well, I must stop....
TO A. DE CANDOLLE.