It will be the 20th October ere I can hope to take you by the hand. Truly welcome are the newspapers you have kindly sent; but I hope for more by the next mail, for I have none later than the middle of September. I never have been so hurried, and had so little time to write, but shall have the more to tell when I reach you, if it please Providence. Excuse chirography also, for pen and ink are wretched and my hands sore. Aster Curtisii abounds and is very showy. A. Elliottii takes here the place of A. puniceus. I have found A. mirabilis. Love to all, most warmly. Don’t fail to mention me to dear Herbert. Monday morning.--Off for Hickory-Nut Gap, where the scenery is said to be very grand, and the botanizing good. I am to get there Asplenium pinnatifidum, Stuartia pentagyna, and Parnassia asarifolia. Hard work, yet pleasant with a companion. I wish you could be with me. Very pleasant Sunday service in the Presbyterian church here. TO GEORGE ENGELMANN. CAMBRIDGE, November 4, 1843. I have been absent in the mountains of Virginia and Carolina--after live plants--from 11th August to yesterday; which will be my excuse for not replying to your letter of September 15th. I hope in the mean time you have found some way to send the roots you proposed. There are now connected express lines all the way through. L. & P. Franciscus & Company, No. 90 North Main St., St. Louis, are the agents of Brown & Company Express, Philadelphia; this connects with Harnden’s Express to Boston, the speediest and cheapest method of sending when the package or box is not large, and speed is desirable.... Gaura Lindheimeri is a very fine plant, and flowered fully three months in our Garden. I am having a drawing--hoping to publish it sometime. I want more seeds of Œnothera rhombipetala. Ours flowered while I was away, and was killed by the frost, so that I secured no drawing. Send me all the seeds you can. Inquire about the express to the East. We must somehow have the means of a more speedy and regular communication of parcels. I found what I believe is your Lepidanche adpressa at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. Also some others in the mountains, which, with a few other plants, I will send to you by express soon.... You know I am obliged now to prepare for a terrible course of public lectures, to commence in February, so that I cannot work at the “Flora” until spring. But I will find time to study and revise any sets of Lindheimer’s, Geyer’s, and Lüder’s plants you send.... As to my paper on Ceratophyllaceæ, I have long since wished it unpublished, as it contains mistaken views. So I do not care to distribute it. February 2, 1844. I have saved Gaura Lindheimeri by cuttings put in pots last autumn. We shall have it in flower early in the spring, and then shall exhibit it at the Horticultural Society’s rooms in Boston. TO HIS FATHER. CAMBRIDGE, November 18, 1843.