408 CORRESPONDENCE. (1854, 
TO W. J. HOOKER. 
AMBRIDGE, March 28, 1854. 
I send a glass bottle filled er the pulp and seed of 
Cereus giganteus as gathered by the natives, and used 
for food, the same as what I formerly sent you a small 
quantity of in a letter, trusting the seeds would grow, 
as they are not subjected to heat in making this jam. 
I have some pieces of the wood of the great Wel- 
lingtonia tree, which | estimate to be not older prob- 
ably than the Christian era. Torrey has no fruit, nor 
have I; but there are some cones in Philadelphia. 
The wood is very like that of the red-wood, i. e., Tax- 
odium sempervirens. I hope we shall get the male 
flowers, but I have no correspondent in California, 
and Torrey no very good or energetic ones. 
How hard it is to believe that there is a European 
war! I trust it will be short. Some of our own peo- 
ple are behaving very badly about Cuba, but it is 
mostly talk for effect, and will lead to nothing, we 
ope. 
TO GEORGE THURBER. 
CamMBRIDGE, 20th April, 1854. 
Desar Tuurser,— When yours of the 17th ar- 
rived, and till now, I have been too much absorbed 
in college duties to consider it, as I now rapidly will. 
Ranunculus 441. J never liked naming a plant 
after a person who has had nothing to do with it, as 
collector, deseriber, and nothing else; therefore do 
not like R. Huntiana. We will wait for some other 
mode of complimenting Mr. Hunt. Moreover, I have 
hit on a name which pleases me tolerably, viz., R. 
hydrocharoides, which, by your leave, we will adopt. 
Thurberia specific name? That is a question to 
