278 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME. [1841, 



of Botany" or something of the kind. Should I 

 have anything to communicate of interest to any other 

 than our local botanists, I shall publish of course un- 

 der my own name. You will receive with this a little 

 notice of some European herbaria, which, common- 

 place as it must be on your side of the water, is useful 

 to our own people. I have been as brief as I could, 

 and have taken the pains to drop the first person sin- 

 gular. I am not sure but I have already sent you a 

 copy through Mr. Pamphlin. Poor Rafinesque, 1 you 

 know, perhaps, is dead ; and I have attempted the 

 somewhat ungracious task of giving some account of 

 his botanical writings, which I will send you when 

 printed. 



I find that Townsend, Nuttall's companion, pub- 

 lished, while I was abroad, an account of their jour- 

 ney. I have never seen a copy, and am told it is out 

 of print ; but I must try to find a copy for you. 

 Townsend being poor, Nuttall waived his intention of 

 publishing in his favor. I have heard that Townsend 

 wishes to make a journey as collector of birds, plants, 

 etc. I wish he would go to the southern Rocky 

 Mountains, and trace them into New Spain. Nuttall 

 has brought home the Grayia. Have you ever received 

 any more of Nuttall's plants, or has Boott? He is 

 selling them to different persons for ten dollars per 

 hundred ; just such specimens as you received through 

 Boott, or sometimes much better and more copious ones. 

 I have some of his Compositse in my hands, which Webb 

 has ordered. He has a considerable number of Oregon 



1 S. Constantino Rafinesque-Schmaltz, d. 1840. A Sicilian by birth. 

 First arrived in the United States, 1802, for three years ; returned 

 in 1815, and explored the Alleghanies and Southern States. " An 

 eccentric but certainly gifted personag-e, connected with the natural 

 history of this country for the last thirty-five years " [A. G.]. 



