as-r. 62.] TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 639 



TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 



CAMBRIDGE, June 12, 1873. 



MY DEAR DE CANDOLLE, I must be in your eyes a 

 disgracefully negligent correspondent and an ungrate- 

 ful friend. I think, however, that I must have ac- 

 knowledged the arrival of your volume which I received, 

 I think, in March, more likely late in February. 

 The attempt at a perusal of it was when, on the 12th 

 March, I went on to New York to pay the last duties to 

 my venerable and good friend and associate, Dr. Tor- 

 rey. I read a good part of the volume on the railway 

 journeys, and planned a review of several of the 

 articles. Then, a month later, I broke away from my 

 laborious life here, and made a visit to my old friend 

 Professor Henry, at Washington. I even went as 

 much farther south, to Wilmington, North Carolina, 

 where I met the spring in all its beauty, a month in 

 advance of our tardy north. I collected a lot of live 

 Dionaeas, etc. I returned to a great accession of 

 university work, my assistant being obliged to leave 

 me on the 1st of May. 



To return to your volume : I called Professor Hen- 

 ry's attention to it, as one which would all through 

 interest him much, if ever he finds time to read it. 

 He will translate the article on the Language of the 

 Twentieth Century for his Report, and perhaps others. 



At a time when I was already overloaded, the death 

 of dear Torrey has thrown some cares and extra work 

 upon me. I have to carry through the press a report of 

 his upon the plants collected in west North America, in 

 Wilkes's Expedition, which was drawn up, but never 

 really finished, twelve years ago, and was called for 

 just during Torrey's last sickness, and to his annoy- 

 ance, which I felt bound to relieve as well as I could. 



