JET. 37.] TO CHARLES WRIGHT. 353 



came seriously sick up to the 9th inst. a week ago 

 when it pleased the Sovereign Disposer of events, 

 to whom I bow, to remove him to a better world ; and 

 I am but recently returned from the mournful journey 

 to convey to the paternal home (in western New 

 York) his mortal remains. This has somewhat inter- 

 rupted the printing of the last sheets of my " Manual 

 of North American Botany ; " which, with all my efforts 

 at condensation, has extended to almost eight hun- 

 dred pages! ! (12mo), including the introduction. It 

 will be difficult to get the volume within covers. A 

 year's hard labor is bestowed upon it ; I hope it will 

 be useful and supply a desideratum. As a consola- 

 tion for my honest faithfulness in making it tolerably 

 thorough, and so much larger than I expected it 

 would prove, it is now clear that I shall get nothing or 

 next to it for my year's labor. At the price to which 

 it must be kept to get it into our schools, etc., there 

 is so little to be made by it, that I cannot induce a 

 publisher to pay the heavy bills, except upon terms 

 which swallow up all the proceeds ; or at the very 

 least I may get $200, if it all sells, a year or two hence. 



Meanwhile, I have paid the expenses principally 

 incurred on the first volume of " Illustrated Genera," 

 which I can't print and finish till the " Manual " is 

 out ; have run heavily into debt in respect to these 

 works, which were merely a labor of love for the good 

 of the science and an honorable ambition ; and how 

 I am going to get through I cannot well see. . . . 



I should despond greatly if I were not of a cheerful 

 temperament. . . . 



I wish I could write to you as you wish, all about 

 botany, etc. I wish I could aid you as I desire, but 

 I fear it is impossible. I must have rest and less 



