. 47.] TO W. J. HOOKER. 433 



TO W. J. HOOKER. 



CAMBRIDGE, December 6, 1857. 



Your first letter is now gone to Sullivant, because 

 you speak of him so handsomely, and say that Mitten 

 is instructed to prepare a set of Mosses for him. A 

 noble fellow is Sullivant and deserves all you say of 

 him and his works. The more you get to know of him 

 the better you will like Mm. 



Let me tell you about my " Manual of the Botany 

 of the Northern United States." It was quite impossi- 

 ble, of course, that the publishers should provide such 

 illustrations as the fourteen plates and keep the book 

 at a salable price, so Sullivant, on his own motion, had 

 the eight plates of Musci engraved in copper, at his 

 own cost, for $630 (about 126), and gave them to 

 the work, after printing 250 copies for his separate 

 booklet I sent you. I gave the six plates of Ferns, 

 etc., cut on stone by Sprague to complete the plan. 

 In the "Journal' you are wrong in supposing that 

 the Musci were even drawn by Sprague. If in time 

 please correct this when you notice his book. Sulli- 

 vant drew them all with his own hands (as he did 

 those of former memoirs which pleased you well), and 

 had them copied and reduced to proper size by a Ger- 

 man artist he employs. So that besides his labor, he 

 has expended at least 180 in money, on these plates. 

 They were executed on copper by a young engraver 

 in Boston. 



Your second letter, begun the day the other was 

 dispatched, reached me a few days ago, while dear 

 Torrey was here on a visit. He has just returned to 

 New York. We called to see Greene, but he was not 



in. . . . 



