MI. 51.] TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 481 



O. pyramidalis, and must extract the whole account 

 of its fertilization for " Silliman's Journal." 



Our only orchis, that is, O. spectabilis, I brought 

 last summer from western New York, and planted. 

 I shall in a week have three or four spikes coining 

 into flower, and I will cover one and leave the others 

 exposed. They are in a wooded part of the garden, 

 like their natural habitat. The rest of our Ophry- 

 dea3 are Habenarias (Platanthera). 



I must recur to your letter about Cypripedium and 

 see what you wanted of it, that is, what observation. 



If there be any adaptation, be it ever so pretty, I 

 shall never see it without your direction. What a 

 skill and genius you have for these researches ! Even 

 for the structure of the flower of the Ophyridea3 I 

 have to-night learned more than I ever knew before. 



TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 



CAMBRIDGE, April 26, 1861. 



MY DEAR FRIEND, My duties in the university 

 at this season are very pressing. Besides, we are now 

 opening a war, upon the determination of which our 

 very existence depends, and upon which we are to 

 concentrate all our strength and soul, so I have no 

 time nor heart to write of botany just now. . . . 

 Ever, dear De Candolle, yours most cordially, 



ASA GRAY. 



December 16. 



We do not often exchange letters now, and in these 

 for us trying times in the United States, though far 

 removed from the actual scenes of war, and not much 

 interrupted in my botanical studies, except by dis- 

 tracting thoughts, I write as few letters as I can. The 



