My plan is only to bring out one volume of the Tree-Report next spring, and not to go beyond the limits of the United States proper, those of “Genera Illustrata,” except to mention the trees of the far West in a general way; otherwise it would be far too formidable.... Sir John Richardson dropped in on me the very day Harvey arrived, expressed regret he could not see you, learned here the rumored news of Franklin. I wish you could have been here at a little dinner party we made for them. He is at home by this time. 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. Your letter of December 4th and your very flattering article in the December number of “Hooker’s Journal” were both most gratifying; and the remarks on the Mimosa were timely, as I was just about consigning the manuscript of the earlier part of the new “Plantæ Lindheimerianæ” to the printer. I like what you say about “deduplication” much, and freely accept almost all. I took the name coined to my hand, not feeling at liberty to coin a new one. I think the production of new organs one before the other can be pretty well explained morphologically and anatomically, in accordance with your hint, and shall attempt to work it out in the third edition of my “Botanical Text-Book,” which I am now preparing for the press. I shall be most glad of any further hints. May I ask you what you think of Adrien de Jussieu’s way of explaining the regular alternation of organs in the flower? I greatly incline to it....