. 72.] TO GEORGE BENTHAM. 745 



so ; then the variety or varieties with the special dif- 

 ferentia. 



From pretty large practice I find this works best, 

 and probably your experience will have brought you 

 to the same conclusion. . . . 



" Liberavi animum meum," and it may go for what 

 you find it worth. ... I did not know that " Amer- 

 icans," i. e., good Americans, did say, " so and so in- 

 termarried with so and so." I see Ravenel, a Caro- 

 linian, says so. 



TO GEORGE BENTHAM. 



CAMBRIDGE, September 25, 1883. 



MY DEAR BENTHAM, - - 1 am so glad to receive a let- 

 ter giving so comfortable an account of yourself; glad 

 also that you would like to hear from me ; glad to 

 announce that, though there are still some genera to 

 revise, I can tell you that I am about to begin the 

 printing of the " Synoptical Flora," containing Capri- 

 f oliaceae - Composite, which when done, I shall feel 

 something of the relief you must have had when the 

 " Genera " was off your hands. That done, I look, 

 with only that mitigated confidence that becomes an 

 old man, for a bit of holiday, such as is always re- 

 invigorating to Mrs. Gray and myself. I am so sorry 

 you had to take up with a sick-room instead. But as 

 you are now picking up finely, could you not be made 

 comfortable and get rid of an English November and 

 December by revisiting the scenes of your youth in 

 the south of France ? . . . 



I think I sent you Trumbull's l (mostly) and my 



1 J. Hammond Trumbull, of Hartford, Conn. ; a great authority 

 on Indian languag-es and customs, and author of many contributions, 

 historical and philological. Perhaps the only American scholar able 

 to read Eliot's Bible. 



