. 24.] TO HIS FATHER. 53 



their extremity. It occurs in a great part of herba- 

 ceous perennials, and can always in practice be distin- 

 guished from the root, although it is still described 

 as root in all the books ; witness, Hydrophyllum, 

 Actaea, Caulophyllum, Trillium, Convallaria, and so on 

 to infinity. 



I am not yet perfectly satisfied about our Actseas ; 

 thus the red-berried one is now perfectly ripe, while 

 the berries of the white one are but half -grown ; all 

 the red ones, so far as I have seen, have slender pedi- 

 cels also, yet the leaves and the rhizomata are exactly 

 alike. By the way, while I was botanizing this after- 

 noon, I met with great quantities of Orchis specta- 

 bilis, by far the largest and finest I ever saw ; their 

 leaves emulating Habenaria orbiculata. If you care 

 for them in the slightest degree, I will secure a suffi- 

 cient quantity to fill your garden. O. spectabilis will, 

 while in flower, be a very pretty spectacle. . . . 

 I remain cordially and truly yours, 



A. GRAY. 



TO HIS FATHER. 



NEW YORK, September 28, 1835. 



I suppose I have been a little negligent in waiting 

 so long before I wrote home, but in truth I did not 

 wish to write until I had something certain to say, 

 and even now I have very little. I met Dr. Hadley 

 in Utica just at dusk on the evening of the day 

 you left me there, so I stayed all night there, and 

 went to Fairfield next day. I stayed at Fail-field 

 until Tuesday afternoon, then went to Little Falls, 

 and arrived in Albany just in time for the evening 

 boat next day, and was in New York at breakfast 

 next morning. 



