364 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME. [1849, 



Sprague has promised now to take up and finish 

 your quarto drawings. He says he can work but a little 

 while at a time, from a difficulty of breathing. Had 

 I foreseen his health and vigor giving way, I should 

 not have undertaken the Trees, which, as to illustra- 

 tions (as he is more fond of them than of anything else, 

 and has made fine drawings), we have gradually en- 

 larged our ideas about them much beyond the original 

 plan, as to the figures. He must get this volume off 

 his hands this winter, anyhow. The " Genera " will 

 lie in abeyance. . . . 



My plan is only to bring out one volume of the Tree- 

 Eeport next spring, and not to go beyond the limits 

 of the United States proper, those of " Genera Illus- 

 trata," except to mention the trees of the far West in 

 a general way ; otherwise it would be far too formi- 

 dable. . . . 



Sir John Richardson dropped in on me the very 

 day Harvey arrived, expressed regret he could not 

 see you, learned here the rumored news of Franklin. 

 I wish you could have been here at a little dinner 

 party we made for them. He is at home by this time. 



TO W. J. HOOKER. 



December 3, 1849. 



. . . We are glad to hear what fine discoveries your 

 son is making in Thibet, etc. 



I saw to-day for the first time, at Green's, the Hima- 

 laya Rhododendrons. . . . 



I have just parted from Harvey, who has passed 

 seven weeks with us, and having finished his course at 

 the Lowell with much acceptance now joins his 

 friends at New York and Philadelphia till Christmas, 

 and then goes south to Florida, Alabama, and proba- 



