Letters to a Friend 



ous part of your letter, the kind of life which 

 our plant friends have, and their relation to us, 

 I do not know what to think of it. I must write 

 of this some other time. 



In this first walk I found Erigenia, which 

 here is ever first, and sweet little violets, and 

 Sanguinaria y and Isopyrum too, and Thalic- 

 trum anemonoides were almost ready to venture 

 their faces to the sky. The red maple was in 

 full flower glory; the leaves below and the 

 mosses were bright with its fallen scarlet blos 

 soms. And the elm too was in flower and the 

 earliest willows. All this when your fields had 

 scarce the memory of a flower left in them. 



I will not try to tell you how much I enjoyed 

 in this walk after four weeks in bed. You can 

 feel it. 



Indianapolis, June Qth, 1867. 



I have been looking over your letters and am 

 sorry that so many of them are unanswered. 

 My debt to you has been increasing very rap 

 idly of late, and I don't think it can ever be 

 paid. 



[23] 



