Details - Francis Boott and John Torrey correspondence, 1821-1851

Francis Boott and John Torrey correspondence, 1821-1851

Title

Francis Boott and John Torrey correspondence, 1821-1851

Related Titles

Related/Analytical: New York Botanical Garden Archives

Series: John Torrey papers, series 1, correspondence

By

Boott, Francis, 1792-1863

Type

Collection

Material

Archival material

Publication info

Notes

Correspondence from Francis Boott to John Torrey, spanning 1821-1851, discussing botanical matters and the activites of mutual friends and acquaintances. Boott is passionately interested in the genus Carex and several letter consist of lists of Carex species for which he lacks specimens or has questions. Some letters accompany the regular shipments of plant specimens that flow between Boott, Torrey, and their associates, particularly Hooker in Glasgow. Others serve as informal introductions for friends of Boott who also wish to begin a correspondence with Torrey. Here and there Boott touches on more personal matters, such as a series of deaths among friends and relatives in 1834, and his opinion of the institution of slavery in America ("I pity your forlorn state as to slavery and cannot imagine how you are to escape the curse"). Obsolete and unresolved plant names mentioned include Aster gracilis, Aster paludosus, Carex alpestris, Carex ampullacea, Carex aristata, Carex barrattii, Carex collecta, Carex commutata, Carex cristata, Carex fraseri, Carex halseyi, Carex hitchcockii, Carex ovata, Carex pulla, Carex scirpoides, Carex setacea, Carex washingtonia, Carex wormskioldiana, and Trifolium flexuosum.

In English.