Cambridge, January 18, 1887.
My dear Hooker,—Glad to see the “Botanical Magazine” figure of Nymphæa flava †.6917.
There is something not quite right in the history as you give it. Leitner was the botanist who showed the plant to Audubon, and gave it the name which Audubon cites, and he died—was killed by the Florida Indians—“half a century ago.” He was the “a naturalist” you refer to.
The whole history and the mode of growth, stolons, etc., has been repeatedly published here in the journals, etc. See Watson’s “Index” Supplement, etc. Not that this is any matter, even about poor Leitner.
Cambridge, January 25, 1887.
... Yes, it has seemed to me clear that you could not cross the Atlantic at present. And so it logically follows that we must.
I had been coming to this conclusion, and only the day before your letter arrived my good wife and I had put our heads together and concluded that, if nothing occurred meanwhile to prevent, we would cross over, say in April. It is time we set about it, if we are ever to do it; and several things seem to indicate that this is a more favorable time than we can expect later.
As this will be “positively Dr. Gray’s last appearance on your shores,” we must make the most of it. Shall we have a Continental jaunt together, or shall you be too much tied to home?
Meanwhile I must work hard and steadily....
As you “weed out” surplus of herbarium Kew, keep them for me. When I come I will take care of them. It is (as usual) good of you to think of us. You have done so for so long a time that it is only “second nature”—very good nature too.