^ST.56.] TO CHARLES WRIGHT. 555 



have been indeed shamefully trampled upon by the 

 President and the dominant party at the South. . . . 



I have not time to answer all your interesting botan- 

 ical notes, and can only thank you for them. I hope 

 you will continue to keep well. 



Our spring is late and wet. There is still quite a 

 covering of snow in the garden, and we have had 

 a deal of it in the winter, and wretched walking and 

 getting about in every way. Happy you, in the 

 tropics. 



You ask who Austin l is. He was an old protege 

 of Dr. Torrey ; lives now in New Jersey, and studies 

 Lemnaceae and Hepaticae. 



. . . You will be more delighted than I am to know 

 that the Democrats have probably carried Connecti- 

 cut. But I am not much the contrary; for the Re- 

 publicans are too many in Congress for their own 

 good, or ours, and it secures the defeat of Barnum 

 for Congress ; as it should be. ... 



April 8. 



I have been having a Sunday's work over your 

 plants. 



It grieves my heart and will grieve yours badly 

 when I tell you that your boxes were put under a 

 cargo of wet sugar, which drained into them, and 

 have ruined the collection. 



... As to specimens to dispose of, say only one 

 half or one third of the whole mass is left fit for 

 it. Oh dear ! God grant you patience ! Will you 

 have the courage to set to work over again ? 



I will try next to tell you what is worst. 



Ever your disconsolate, A. GRAY. 



1 Coe F. Austin, 1832-1880; especially devoted to the study of 

 Hepaticse. 



