. 55.] TO GEORGE BENTHAM. 547 



So do not you " growl " at me now if you can help 



1 I. . . . 



Alas, your Algae will be too late for dear Harvey. 

 He is dying of consumption, and we may hear of the 

 end any day. This is all at present from 



Your old, worn-out friend, ASA GRAY. 



TO GEORGE BENTHAM. 



June 12, 1866. 



We have as many asters as we can manage in Amer- 

 ica, and in the northern hemisphere of the Old World. 

 I pray you keep out at least Australian things if it be 

 possible. 



I envy you more and more in being able to devote 

 yourself to systematic botany steadily, without the 

 distraction and sad consumption of time in profes- 

 sional and administrative duties and avocations, which 

 make havoc of the opportunities of most botanists, 

 and make their work which they are able to do far 

 less valuable than it would otherwise be. And you 

 work on with such quiet determination ! The lamented 

 losses of the last year or two have already made you 

 the Nestor, though I cannot think you old. I do hope 

 you have a fair number of good working years yet, 

 in which you can make your great experience tell to 

 utmost advantage. . . . 



Much against my will, I have this summer to work 

 upon a new edition of my " Manual of the Northern 

 United States Botany," to which there is much to be 

 done. I shall not, however, so recast the work as I 

 should if I could defer it till I had blocked out the 

 outlines of a similar but much larger volume for all 

 the United States of America, and till your " Genera 

 Flora " had been carried much farther. 



