Botanists -- United States -- Correspondence; Gray, Asa, 1810-1888 -- Correspondence
I hope I have not offended Link by overstating his age. I am pretty sure
I was so informed by Klotzsch who ought to know. You will now and then
see some little articles or notices of mine in “Silliman’s Journal.” I
prepare these notices merely to awaken and deepen the interest of our
scattered botanists and lovers of plants, most of whom see that journal,
and few of whom have any other means of knowing what is going on in the
botanical world. We have, however, a few promising fellows who take the
“Journal of Botany” or something of the kind. Should I have anything to
communicate of interest to any other than our local botanists, I shall
publish of course under my own name. You will receive with this a little
notice of some European herbaria, which, commonplace as it must be on
your side of the water, is useful to our own people. I have been as
brief as I could, and have taken the pains to drop the first person
singular. I am not sure but I have already sent you a copy through Mr.
Pamphlin. Poor Rafinesque,[123] you know, perhaps, is dead; and I have
attempted the somewhat ungracious task of giving some account of his
botanical writings, which I will send you when printed.
I find that Townsend, Nuttall’s companion, published, while I was
abroad, an account of their journey. I have never seen a copy, and am
told it is out of print; but I must try to find a copy for you. Townsend
being poor, Nuttall waived his intention of publishing in his favor. I
have heard that Townsend wishes to make a journey as collector of birds,
plants, etc. I wish he would go to the southern Rocky Mountains, and
trace them into New Spain. Nuttall has brought home the Grayia. Have you
ever received any more of Nuttall’s plants, or has Boott? He is selling
them to different persons for ten dollars per hundred; just such
specimens as you received through Boott, or sometimes much better and
more copious ones. I have some of his Compositæ in my hands, which Webb
has ordered. He has a considerable number of Oregon and Californian
Compositæ which Douglas did not get (and he failed to meet with many of
Douglas’s), and others in the States; as Pyrrocoma with rays. Nuttall
ought to send all these to you.... I know with considerable accuracy
what plants (Compositæ) are desiderata with you; and I will take the
liberty of writing at once to Nuttall, and asking for such in your name.
I shall ask for about one hundred Compositæ, and will extend the order
to other plants if you desire it. He has, however, distributed nothing
beyond Compositæ. Pray let me know at once if I have done rightly in
this....
Among Drummond’s Louisiana plants is the rarest of all United States
Compositæ, Stokesia cyanea. It was pointed out to me by Arnott (January,
1839), but I have just examined Greene’s specimens.
A. G.
NEW YORK, 20th May, 1841.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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