784 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1886, 



Coulter, 1 but also I find it important to know Iris 

 routes in Mexico and California. 



At Los Angeles, last year, I fell in with one of the 

 " old settlers ' who knew him, and who accompanied 

 him on that expedition into the Arizona desert on the 

 lower Colorado. Mr. Ball will ascertain and let me 

 know other particulars of the man, and the date of 

 his death, which probably occurred not long after that 

 last letter to you, from Paris. 



In various ways I am convinced that I am on the 

 verge of superannuation. Still I work on ; and now, 

 dividing the orders with Mr. Watson (who, though not 

 young, is eight or ten years my junior), we are working 

 away at the Polypetala3 of the " Synoptical Flora of 

 North America," with considerable heat and hope. 

 But it is slow work ! 



Tuckerman, our lichenologist, has gone before us ! 

 I shall in a few days send you a copy of the memo- 

 rial of him which I contributed to the Council report 

 of the American Academy of Sciences and am having 

 reprinted in the " American Journal of Science ' for 

 July. 



My wife is fairly well. . . . She is always busy ; 

 and we both enjoy life with a zest, being in all re- 

 spects very happily situated, particularly in having 

 plenty to do. 



Let us hope that you may still be able to give us 

 better accounts of Madame de Candolle and of your- 

 self ; and believe me to be always, 



Yours affectionately, ASA GRAY. 



1 Thomas Coulter. Little is known of him. He explored in Mex- 

 ico many years and in California in 1831 and 1832. Was appointed 

 Curator of the herbarium of the Dublin Botanic Garden, where he 

 died in 1843. 



