MR. DRUMMOND’S COLLECTIONS. 53 
ney to Santa Fé at the proper season. I spent several hours 
yesterday in looking over a collection of Mosses from the 
States, and was glad to observe a considerable number of spe- 
cies amongst them that were not found in the Northern Ex- 
pedition (Franklin's); so that I anticipate making considerable 
additons to that department. Vegetation is not yet sufficiently 
advanced to induce me to make any delay, and I therefore 
intend setting off to-morrow for Philadelphia. The trees are 
just beginning to put forth their leaves, such as Poplars and 
Willows, and they, and the earlier kinds of fruit-trees, are in 
full bloom. Dr. Torrey is much pleased with the set of N. 
American Mosses* you sent, especially as he is at present 
preparing a list of those species that are known to exist through- 
out America; but he will write to you more particularly him- 
self, as he intends sending you a parcel by the same ship that 
takes this. I expect to reach St. Louis by the end of May, 
whence I trust to be able to inform you of some success in 
collecting. Iam in excellent health, which I hope will con- 
tinue, and enable me to fulfil the expectations of those friends 
who have so kindly assisted me in the present undertaking." 
The next letter bears date, ** Philadelphia, 7th May, 1831," 
when he states that, * Having been delayed here for several 
days, with a veiw of procuring introductory letters to the in- 
terior, I have made a short excursion to the woody country, 
and as an opportunity serves of forwarding a parcel, free of 
expense, I have put up such plants as I observed in flower. 
There is, indeed, nothing interesting+ among them, but they 
* ** Musci Americani, or dried specimens collected in British North 
America, and chiefly among the Rocky Mountains, during the Second 
Land Arctic Expedition, under the command of Captain Sir John Franklin, 
R. N., by Thomas Drummond, Assistant-Naturalist to the Expedition.” 
In 2 volumes, quarto, 
T It is but justice to this most disinterested man to observe, that he 
invariably speaks of his collections as of less value than they really prove 
to possess. In regard to the parcel in question, it contained, independently 
