1792.] TO WILLIAM BAR TRAM. 471 



and a number of Grasses, -which I observed at a distance, at your 

 noble river. 



How does our friend Doctor Barton do ? He will find it a 

 very difficult task to write a complete Flora Pennsylvanica, at 

 this time ; and I wish I could persuade him to take only his neigh- 

 bourhood. Delaware, Schuylkill, the near parts of the Jerseys, 

 will take a number of years to have all their plants well and satis- 

 factorily described. 



You will do me a great favour, if you continue to send me some 

 specimens of dried plants, which you think curious, and rank me 

 amongst the number of your sincere friends. 



Remember me to your worthy brother, and believe me to be, 

 with great esteem, sir, your most obedient and sincere friend, 



Henry Muhlenberg. 



Lancaster, October 8, 1792. 



P. S. The post not going last week, I had an opportunity of 

 opening the packet, and adding a wish, viz. I lately read an Ap- 

 pendix of your worthy father, in which several plants are named, 

 which I can't make out by their description. You, no doubt, know 

 them. 



* * * No. 11, Blazing Star, LiNN^US takes to be Aletris 

 farinosa. You say it is what we hitherto named Veratrum luteum- 



* * * No. 15, Orchis. I suppose the same we here name 

 "Adam and Eve." 



Any observations on this head will be extremely welcome. We 

 ought, before all, to clear up what has been written already. In 

 the same manner, illustrations of Marshall and Walter will be 

 necessary. 



October 15th, 1792. 



Dear Sir : 



With inexpressible satisfaction I received and perused your kind 

 letter, dated November 29, 1792 ; and now sit down to answer it. 



The Oak, I sent, grows all along the banks of Conestoga, and is 

 reckoned a valuable wood. I suppose it has been taken, by some 

 botanists, as a variety of Quercus Prinos ; but it differs from that, 

 as likewise from the Quercus alba palustris Marshallii. Mar- 

 shall, I think, has not described it, We call it " Yellow White 

 Oak," "Water Chestnut Oak." 



