402 CORRESPONDENCE. [1853, 



is largely used by our shipping. But what plant 

 yields the manilla hemp for this cordage I have not 

 the means of knowing, that is, whether the Musa 

 textilis or no. I have been promised specimens of 

 the stem of the plant, etc. But the climate makes 

 our countrymen indolent there, and forgetful. I will 

 ask for statistics as to the paper manufacture. . . . 



I shall be pleased to have you figure as many of our 

 ferns as you can ; and pray give names to all new 

 species without hesitation. They will be more fitly 

 named by the describes than by any one else. 



I note with satisfaction what you write about genera 

 of ferns. This pushing a single character (as vena- 

 tion) without regard to consequences, and giving it 

 the same importance when it does not accord with 

 habit as when it does, is the fault of most botanolo- 

 gists who restrict their view to one subject or one idea 

 only. I am glad that you will carefully revise the 

 genera on your own judgment. 



By the way, the fern I sent you last spring, and 

 which you called Asplenium * montanum, Willd. (a 

 species I used to know well), struck the collector 

 (Beaumont), as it did me, to be different. Pray col- 

 late, and perhaps figure it, as well as the ordinary A. 

 montanum. 



I was grieved to hear of the death of Adr. de Jus- 

 sieu, with whom I have had a very pleasant corre- 

 spondence for the last three years, and to whom I was 

 attached as to no other Frenchman. His late letters 

 were so cheerful and lively, and even hopeful, that the 

 news of his death took me by surprise, notwithstanding 

 the steady failure of his health for a long while. . . . 



We remember with interest that dear Harvey sets 

 out to-morrow on his long voyage. 



