366 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME. [1850, 



" Botanical Text-Book," which I am now preparing for 

 the press. I shall be most glad of any further hints. 



May I ask you what you think of Adrien de Jus- 

 sieu's way of explaining the regular alternation of 

 organs in the flower ? I greatly incline to it. ... 



I have to finish this Lindheimer collection, finish 

 Fendler's, distribute and study Wright's collection 

 when I get it, carry the " Botanical Text-Book " 

 through the press, rewriting and expanding it (thus 

 far I have made it all over), write the first volume of 

 an elaborate report on the Trees of United States 

 for the Smithsonian Institution, in fact a Sylva, with 

 colored plates by Sprague (which I could not resist 

 taking in hand, as that institution promised to bring 

 it out, and handsomely, at their expense), and give 

 iny course of lectures in the college from March to 

 June. When all this is done I can cross the At- 

 lantic. . . . By engaging a brother professor to take 

 the duties which I have for the autumn term (assign- 

 ing to him pro rata from my salary), I shall be free 

 until 1st March ensuing. But I mean to ask for leave 

 of absence for a year, and trust I shall get it. ... 



As far as it has yet shaped itself my plan is ... 

 to sit down hard to work for the autumn and winter 

 on the Exploring Expedition plants, to go to Paris in 

 the spring and settle such questions as must be settled 

 there after I come to know better than I now do (ex- 

 cept in the Composites) what they are. Excepting 

 the Oregon and Californian plants, which are as- 

 signed to Torrey, and the Sandwich Islands Collec- 

 tion, a fine one, the ' collection is a poor one, often 

 very meagre in specimens, too much of an alongshore 

 and roadside collection to be of great interest. I am 

 not familiar with tropical forms and have no great 



