rT. 37.] TO CHARLES WRIGHT. 353 
came seriously sick up to the 9th inst. —a week ago 
— when it pleased the Sovereign Disposer of events, 
to whom I bow, to remove him to a better world ; and 
I am but recently returned from the mournful journey 
to convey to the paternal home (in western New 
York) his mortal remains. This has somewhat inter- 
rupted the printing of the last sheets of my “* Manual 
of North American Botany ;” which, with all my efforts 
at condensation, has extended to almost eight hun- 
dred pages! ! (12mo), including the introduction. It 
will be difficult to get the volume within covers. A 
year’s hard labor is bestowed upon it; I hope it will 
be useful and supply a desideratum. As a consola- 
tion for my honest faithfulness in making it tolerably 
thorough, and so much larger than I expected it 
would prove, it is now clear that I shall get nothing or 
next to it for my year’s labor. At the price to which 
it must be kept to get it into our schools, etc., there 
is so little to be made by it, that I cannot induce a 
publisher to pay the heavy bills, except upon terms 
which swallow up all the proceeds; or at the very 
least I may get $200, if it all sells, a year or two hence. 
Meanwhile, I have paid the expenses principally 
incurred on the first volume of “ Illustrated Genera,” 
which I can’t print and finish till the “* Manual” is 
out; have run heavily into debt in respect to these 
works, which were merely a labor of love for the good 
of the science and an honorable cari and how 
I am going to get through I cannot well see. . 
I should pe greatly if I were not of a hauehel 
temperament. . 
I wish I contd iit to you as you wish, all about 
botany, ete. I wish I could aid you as I desire, but 
I fear it is impossible. I must have rest and less 
