292 Underwood: Wright's explorations in Cuba 



in Cuba covered a period of nearly ten years. He arrived in 

 Santiago de Cuba 25 November 1856, and returned to New York 

 9 September 1857. His second voyage brought him to Santiago 

 30 November 1858 and he left Havana for New York 28 July 

 1864. His third trip commenced in 



May 1865 and he returned 



July 



the 



In order to determine more accurately Wright's exact route 

 in Cuba, the writer applied to Miss M. A. Day, the librarian of 

 the Gray herbarium, for information regarding Wright's field 

 notes or other sources of information that might exist at Cam- 

 bridge. Through her kind intervention, it was made possible to 

 examine the extensive series of letters written by Wright, during 

 his long residence in Cuba, to Dr. Asa Gray. These are now in 

 the possession of Mrs. Gray and it is owing to her generosity that 

 we were able to consult at our pleasure the long series, which con- 

 sists of some two hundred finely written and often long-continued 

 letters which are full of valuable notes on the flora. The time 

 will come when the publication of these letters, or excerpts from 

 them, will form a valuable commentary on Cuban plants. The 

 tedious perusal of these letters w^as diversified by Wright's ac- 

 counts of his experiences, some of which were almost the dupli- 

 cate of our own, and more especially by the side-notes on 

 political situation existing in our country during the stormy and 

 tumultuous period of the Civil War (1861-1865). It would ap- 

 pear that Wright was a northern Democrat, and his previous 

 travels in the South had led him to understand the problem from 

 a broader standpoint than many of the residents of New England, 

 whose bias was in great measure due to this lack of exact inform c- 

 tion of the real situation, and his vigorous statements were evidently 

 called forth by equally strong sentiments from his correspondent. 



As we are concerned at present only with the matter of 

 Wright*s itinerary, we will cite only the dates and localities where 

 the letters were written, with sufficient of the context to explain 

 the locality and the direction of the course of exploration. 



was also engaged part of the time in collecting shells and other things, especially after 

 he met Gundlach. In Dr. Gray's Letters (2 : 555) these sentences explain the cause 

 the loss : " April 8th. It grieves my heart and will grieve yours badly when I tell you 

 that your boxes were put under a cargo of wet sugar, which drained into them and have 

 \sic\ ruined the collection, ... As to specimens to dispose of, say only one-half ox 

 one-third of the whole mass is left fit for it/' 



