56 EARLY UNDERTAKINGS. [1836, 
I pay $4 per week, and keep a fire besides, which I 
suppose will startle you a little. I hope to obtain 
the situation of curator to the Lyceum of Natural 
History in the spring, when their new building is 
finished. The duties of the situation will take up 
only a part of my time. I shall have under my charge 
the best scientifie library and cabinet in the city, a 
couple of fine rooms to live in, and a salary of about 
$300. But although I can secure pretty strong influ- 
ence, the best members of the society offering me the 
place and wishing me to take it, yet it is not certain 
that we shall bring it about,so I say nothing about it. 
I shall let you kee whenever any changes offer in 
my situation. 
TO JOHN TORREY. 
New York, July 11, 1836. 
Dear Docror, — Since your departure several 
memoranda of more or less consequence have aceu- 
mulated around me, and (having not yet heard from 
you) I will now communicate them, together with 
whatever intelligence I think will interest you. To 
begin with the most important. I have now (5 P.M.) 
just returned from your house, where I found a parcel 
for you (received by mail from Philadelphia, postage 
the mere trifle of $1.14)), with the Hamburg seal, 
and the handwriting of our old correspondent, Pro- 
fessor Lehmann. Suspecting it to contain advice of 
packages of plants or books, I took the liberty to open 
it. I found two diplomas in high Dutch. Shade of 
Leopoldino-Carolinee Cesar. academixe nature curi- 
osorum! Hide your diminished head, and give way to 
the Konigliche Botanische Gesellschaft in Regens- 
burg!— which being interpreted means, I imagine, 
the Royal Botanical Society of Regensburg. Now 
