152 FIRST JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1839, 



about the process of impregnation and the early de- 

 velopment of embryo, which I am accumulating, as 

 much as I can, for future use. Pray tell Dr. Perrine 

 that the gardeners and botanists here insist by accla- 

 mation almost that there is no such thing as acclima- 

 tion in the vegetable kingdom. 



What a pickle the Linnaean Ascyrum is in ! I wish 

 I had room to tell you. 



TO MBS; TORREY. 

 Tuesday morning, two o'clock A. M., March 14, 1839. 



I have just finished packing up, being about to start 

 for Boulogne in steamboat at nine o'clock this morning, 

 and I must now hastily close my letters. This, or 

 rather yesterday, has been a busy day with me. I 

 started in the morning to have a look at a few more 

 things of Pursh's at Lambert's, but he kept me longer 

 than I liked. He found somewhere a small parcel of 

 plants collected by Eschscholz in Kotzebue's voyage, 

 who sent them to Lambert. Lambert gave me all the 

 North American ones, few to be sure, but interesting. 

 From Lambert's I returned by way of the Horticul- 

 tural Society, to bid good-by to Lindley and Bentham, 

 but the latter insists upon coming up in the morning 

 to my lodgings to see me off. I have made a fortu- 

 nate acquisition for him. He told me he saw, a few 

 days ago, at an auction some copies of Richard's fine 

 work on the Coniferae, but an engagement at the time 

 prevented him from staying to buy a copy of the work 

 for himself, which he imagined would be sold cheap. 

 Mr. Putnam found out who bought up these copies, 

 and obtained one at nearly the price at which they were 

 sold. I shall have the pleasure of presenting it to 

 Bentham this morning when he calls. I went to the 



