216 AMEEICA : GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



propitious till we entered this desert region, which extends 

 from Salt Lake westwards, and is very low, dusty, and very 

 trying. It is awfully hard to keep up, travelling by rail, 

 collecting, drying plants, writing notes and Journal in such 

 heat and drought. I am getting very sick of it, but to-morrow 

 we shall be, I hope, over the Sierra. I cannot fancy any 

 route over which a European would get more accessible 

 Botany new to him than a railroad trip across N. America. 

 The Floras of the E. and W. are of two continents ! 



To Charles Darwin 



October 19, 1877. 



I have indeed had a splendid journey ; and thanks to 

 A. Gray a most profitable one nothing could or can ever 

 reach his unwearied exertions to make me master of all I saw 

 throughout the breadth and not a little of the length of the 

 U. States. The Geographical Distribution of the Flora is 

 wonderfully interesting, and its very outlines are not yet 

 drawn. We have material for a most interesting Essay. I 

 have brought home upwards of 1000 species of dried speci- 

 mens for comparison of the Rocky and Sierra Nevada and 

 Coast Range Floras, an investigation of which should give 

 the key to the American Flora migrations. 



As usual with me when at sea I caught the Equinoctials, 

 and we had the longest Eastward voyage that the Captain 

 had ever known ! Thirteen days of heavy contrary gales and 

 a high sea continuously from Boston Harbour to Cork. 



Dyer has done uncommonly well in my absence, and 

 goes for the last three-quarters of his honeymoon on 

 Monday. Crowds of people asked for you in America, so 

 pray accept the national greetings through me, for I can't 

 individualize. 



To George Maw 



November 16, 1877. 



I had not the ghost of an adventure in America, where 

 I saw a prodigious deal and learnt much. California was 

 burnt up with nine months' drought, which obliterated the 

 herbaceous vegetation and allowed me full time for the 

 arboreous and fruticose. I was charmed with New England, 

 disappointed with the Rocky Mts. as a range, and have no 



