BT. 29.] TO W. J. HOOKER. 275 
your herbarium and library. Long accustomed to 
these advantages, you can scarcely appreciate the diffi- 
culties we often find. I was to-day wishing for a 
look at your Cucurbitacez ; we have, as you know, 
but few of the order. 
I shall not be able to visit Florida or any part of 
the Southern States this summer; indeed, I fear I 
shall be debarred from any botanical journeys for some 
years. I must direct all my time and strength to our 
“ Flora.” I hope we may complete another volume 
by the spring of next year. The way seems to be 
opening for increased facilities in sending a botanical 
collector to the Rocky Mountains. Our government is 
about to establish a line of military outposts quite up 
to the source of the Platte, in the principal pass of 
the mountains; and in a few years I doubt not we 
shall have small colonies in Oregon ; but I know not 
when we shall be able to send a collector. I would 
like vastly to go after Grayia myself, but that cannot 
be at present. Nuttall has been giving a course of 
botanical lectures in Boston; and still remains there, 
I believe. My attempts to find Wilson’s poem have 
not yet been successful. I shall esteem it a piece of 
good fortune if I succeed. I have engaged a friend 
of mine, a bookseller, also to search for it ; and when 
I visit Philadelphia I shall inquire of some old people 
who knew Wilson. May God bless you, my dear 
friend; kindest regards and affectionate sympathies 
to Lady Hooker. Faithfully your attached 
A. Gray. 
