#7. 51.) TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 481 
O. pyramidalis, and must extract the whole account 
of its fertilization for ‘¢ Silliman’s Journal.” 
Our only orchis, that is, O. spectabilis, I brought 
last summer from western New York, and planted. 
I shall in @ week have three or four spikes coming 
into flower, and I will cover one and leave the others 
exposed. They are in a wooded part of the garden, 
like their natural habitat. The rest of our Ophry- 
deze are Habenarias (Platanthera). 
I must recur to your letter about Cypripedium and 
see what you wanted of it, that is, what observation. 
If there be any adaptation, be it ever so pretty, I 
shall never see it without your direction. What a 
skill and genius you have for these researches! Even 
for the structure of the flower of the Ophyridex I 
have to-night learned more than I ever knew before. 
TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 
CAMBRIDGE, April 26, 1861. 
My pear Frrenp, — My duties in the university 
at this season are very pressing. Besides, we are now 
opening a war, upon the determination of which our 
very existence depends, and upon which we are to 
concentrate all our strength and soul, so I have no 
time nor heart to write of botany just now. .. . 
Ever, dear De Candolle, yours most cordially, 
Asa Gray. 
December 16. 
We do not often exchange letters now, and in these 
for us trying times in the United States, though far 
removed from the actual scenes of war, and not much 
interrupted in my botanical studies, except by dis- 
tracting thoughts, I write as few letters as lean. The 
