JET. 56.] TO CHARLES WRIGHT. 555 



have been indeed shamefully trampled upon by the 

 President and the dominant party at the South. . . . 



I have not time to answer all your interesting botan- 

 ical notes, and can only thank you for them. I hope 

 you will continue to keep well. 



Our spring is late and wet. There is still quite a 

 covering of snow in the garden, and we have had 

 a deal of it in the winter, and wretched walking and 

 getting about in every way. Happy you, in the 

 tropics. 



You ask who Austin l is. He was an old protege 

 of Dr. Torrey ; lives now in New Jersey, and studies 

 Lemnacese and Hepaticae. 



. . . You will be more delighted than I am to know 

 that the Democrats have probably carried Connecti- 

 cut. But I am not much the contrary; for the Re- 

 publicans are too many in Congress for their own 

 good, or ours, and it secures the defeat of Barnum 

 for Congress ; as it should be. ... 



April 8. 



I have been having a Sunday's work over your 

 plants. 



It grieves my heart and will grieve yours badly 

 when I tell you that your boxes were put under a 

 car<ro of wet suGfar, which drained into them, and 



O O 



have ruined the collection. 



... As to specimens to dispose of, say only one 

 half or one third of the whole mass is left fit for 

 it. Oh dear ! God grant you patience ! Will you 

 have the courage to set to work over again ? 



I will try next to tell you what is worst. 



Ever your disconsolate, A. GRAY. 



1 Coe F. Austin, 1832-1880; especially devoted to the study of 

 Hepaticae. 



