^T. 74.] TO J. D. HOOKER. 761 



I am well, can hardly be said to need the holiday 

 we have determined on. . . . We shall benefit much, 

 I think probable, by getting off to meet the spring, 

 avoiding February -April here, which are the only 

 drawbacks to a climate of the best : for you know I 

 do not at all dislike summer heat. 



We have not troubled ourselves much as to where 

 we would go. But now it does seem that we will go 

 to the southern part of California, if possible by the 

 southern Arizona route, which is near the Mexican 

 boundary, and must be best for winter, and to return 

 by the route through the northern part of Arizona, 

 which should be pleasant in the latter part of April. 

 Oh, that you and Lady Hooker could be with us. ... 

 And we shall be lonely without you on our travels, 

 and feel that " that great principle of the survival of 

 the fittest " has been woefully violated. . . . 



CITY OF MEXICO, Sunday, February 22, 1885. 



Your letter of January 20, forwarded from Cam- 

 bridge, overtook us at San Antonio, Bexar. We 

 left home February 3, in bitter cold, for St. Louis, 

 where I had an interview with old Shaw, and heard 

 him read his rearranged will, which is satisfactory, 

 as it will allow his trustees, and the corporation of 

 Washington University there, to turn his bequests to 

 good account for botany ; will be an endowment quite 

 large enough for the purpose. 



Thence, rail two nights and a day to Mobile, 

 where it was warm and springlike, but no flowers out, 

 barring an early violet. Thence to New Orleans, which 

 has a great exposition and a crowd, and where, in a 

 sudden change to cold, I caught a dreadful cold. It 

 began with such a hoarseness that, going, Mrs. Gr. and 



