Er. 68.] TO A. DE CANDOLLE. 685 
pled by lumbago. I took with me your pleasant 
letter of the 29th December, intending to write to 
you from there, but I found no time. The present 
moment is opportune, as I cannot well move about as 
I must do in my ordinary work. 
I have sent for Saporta’s book, asi shall study it 
with interest. Glad I am that your “ Phytographie ” 
is in hand. I wish I had it now before me ; for I have 
now to write something on the subject for a new edi- 
tion of my “ Botanical Text-Book,” now in hand. 
How well Bentham still writes and works! Notice 
his essay on Euphorbiacez. You and Bentham have 
kept orthodox views of nomenclature at the fore in 
Europe, and I have seconded them here, so that, ex- 
cept among cryptogamists, heterodoxy makes no 
headway. 
I have some ideas about the best form for Latin 
specific characters, as distinguished from descriptions, 
as to punctuation, etc., which I wish to present to you. 
Perhaps I can best, and soon, do so by sending you 
proof-sheets. 
The link which connected us with a former gener- 
ation of botanists is broken. Jacob Bigelow, the cor- 
respondent of Muhlenberg! and of J. E. Smith, as 
well as your father, died on the 10th inst., at the age 
of ninety-two. Up to three or four years ago he pre- 
served all his faculties. But sight and hearing gradu- 
ally failed, and for two years he has been merely alive ; 
at length the candle burned out. 
House of Representatives, January 16, 1879, Dr. Gray read a Bio- 
graphical Memorial of Joseph Henry, in behalf of the Board of Re- 
nts. 
1 Heinrich Ludwig Muhlenberg, 1756-1817; a Lutheran preacher 
in Lancaster, Penn.; published a Catalogue of North American Plants, 
and a Description of North American Grasses. 
