My last visit to Washington was a sad one, to attend the funeral of my dear old friend Professor Joseph Henry, to whom we are all greatly indebted. When I saw him in January, at the annual meeting of the regents of the Smithsonian Institution, it was too evident that he would not much longer be with us. * * * * * As may be remembered, Dr. Gray, when in Paris in 1839, found in Michaux’s herbarium a plant which he describes as new, giving it the name of Shortia galacifolia, in honor of his old friend Dr. Short of Louisville, Ky. One great object of his later journeys to the southern Alleghanies was the search for this plant. No botanist had succeeded in rediscovering it, and many doubted if Dr. Gray had not been mistaken, though he found among Japanese plants, sent from St. Petersburg, one of the same genus, with a rude Japanese woodcut. It was therefore a great triumph when it was accidentally discovered by an herb-collector, Mr. Hyams, in North Carolina. The next journey to the mountains, in 1879, was planned to search for it especially. An account of the rediscovery and a description of the plant is given in “American Journal of Science,” iii., xvi., pp. 483, 1878. Mr. Sargent repeats the story in “Garden and Forest,” December 19, 1888, and tells how in 1886 he followed Michaux’s steps up the Keowee River, in the mountains of South Carolina, farther south than the search had been before, and was rewarded by finding the plant in abundance. Professor W. W. Bailey, of Providence, then sent a note to “Garden and Forest,” to say that to Mr. J. W. Congdon, then of Providence, belongs the credit of having sent the first news of the discovery of the plant to Dr. Gray, and tells of Dr. Gray’s answer: “If you think you have Shortia send it on.” It was sent. Then came from Dr. Gray the characteristic postal, “It is so. Now let me sing my nunc dimittis!” TO W. M. CANBY. CAMBRIDGE, October 21, 1878. DEAR CANBY,--Thanks; glad you can come. You will be notified, if the case comes on. If you will come here I can show what will delight your eyes, and cure you effectually of that skeptical spirit you used to have about Shortia galacifolia. It is before me, with corolla and all, from North Carolina! Think of that! My long faith rewarded at last! Yours ever, A. GRAY. P. S.--No other botanist has the news. October 28, 1878. ... I wrote to Hyams how much immortality he lost, or rather postponed, for his son, by not sending me that specimen eighteen months ago, so that it would go into “Flora,” but that I should make his name famous in “Silliman’s Journal,” pro tem. I took the latter end of his letter to be a cancel of his request to return the specimen. Told him that in May either you or I or both would be down, call for his boy, and be taken to the spot!