3852 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME. [1848, 
cool region that, and dry. If these come from the 
plains, what will the mountains yield? Fendler must 
go back, or a new collector, now that order is restored 
there. 
All Fendler’s collection will sell at once, no fear, 
such fine specimens and so many good plants. Pity 
that F. did not know enough to leave out some of the 
common plants, except two or three specimens for us, 
and bestow the same labor on the new plants around 
him. 
Send on the rest soon. 
Yours cordially, A. GRAY. 
TO CHARLES WRIGHT. 
CAMBRIDGE, January 17, 1848. 
Dear Frrenp,— That I ought to have replied to 
your letter of the 19th November, to say nothing of 
that of September 21 and June 18, there is no doubt. 
The letter I have carried in my pocket a good while, 
hoping to catch a moment somewhere and some time 
to write to you, especially as the time approaches in 
which I may be sending a parcel to New Orleans for 
you. But I have not had an hour’s leisure not de- 
manded by letters of immediate pressing consequence, 
or in which I was not too tired to write. 
There are many correspondents whom I have 
neglected almost as much as I have you. I have 
worked like a dog, but my work laid out to be finished 
last July is not done yet. 
But from about the time of your last letter a provi- 
dential dispensation has prevented me from doing 
what I would, namely, the sickness, by typhoid fever, 
of a beloved brother (a Junior in college here), who 
required every leisure moment from the time he be- 
