424 CORRESPONDENCE. [1856, 
me, we will look after you like dutiful children, will 
go with you to Niagara, or to Lake Superior, if you 
will go so far, for there is nothing would give us so 
an. pleasure as a visit from you; and if you would 
bring Lady Hooker or Mrs. Evans, or both, with you, 
it would be charming. The voyage is nothing to speak 
of, traveling here is easy and rapid, although not so 
very comfortable, as in England, and a good deal of 
the country can be seen in a few weeks without much 
fatigue. Pray do come, and exceedingly gprclan 
Your affectionate and faithful A. GRA 
TO JAMES D. DANA. 
December 13, 1856. 
My pear Dana, ne duly received the sheets I 
asked for. 
The right way to bring a series of pretty interest- 
ing general questions towards settlement is perhaps in 
hand (though I do not expect myself to bring any-’ 
thing important to bear on it), viz., for a number of 
totally independent naturalists, of widely different - 
pursuits and antecedents, to environ it on all sides, 
work towards a common centre, but each to work 
perfectly independently. Such men as Darwin, Dr. 
Hooker, De Candolle, Agassiz, and myself, — most of 
them with no theory they are bound to support, — 
ought only to bring out some good results. And the 
less each one is influenced by the other’s mode of 
viewing things the better. For my part, in respect 
to the bearings of the distribution of plants, ete., I 
am determined to know no theory, but to see what the 
facts tend to show, when fairly treated. 
On the subject of species, their nature, distribu- 
tion, what system in natural history is, ete., certain 
SE ip Sea secae (iGo kag a is 
