a 
THE CORRESPONDENCE OF SCHWEINITZ AND TORREY 205 
fore she reached Sandy Hook and I fear almost every thing lost. 
Should the gentleman who took charge of my packages & who was 
going directly to Dr. Hooker with them, take passage in another 
vessel, he will still be the best person to intrust with them. I 
have just received a letter from the Dr., in which he expresses the 
greatest desire to obtain specimens of North American plants. 
He is engaged in writing an Universal Flora,[*] in English; the first 
part of which will appear in April next. This work will be ar- 
ranged according to the natural orders. 
Our Lyceum flourishes more than ever, but still we labour 
under great disadvantages for want of funds. If we had such 
a man as Maclure to patronise us, the Academy of Philadelphia 
would not be before us many years. I send you a subscription 
paper for our Annals to circulate among such of your friends as 
you think would subscribe. We need some more subscribers to 
defray our expenses. 
I mentioned some time since that Prof. Hooker had presented 
me with a copy of his Musci Exotici [35], a splendid work with 
numerous plates—Should you wish to loan this for a month or 
two, it is entirely at your service. I had commenced selecting 
some duplicates from the Nepal specimens sent me by the author, 
but I desisted, knowing he certainly would himself send good 
specimens of which I could only spare fragments—Still If you 
wish them, they shall most cheerfully be sent. 
I send you a specimen of a Fern I once mentioned. It re- 
sembles Woodsia in some respects, but wants the capillary margin 
to the involucrum, & the capsules are not pedicellate. By the 
way, I have often examined specimens of W. hyperborea from 
Europe & never could observe the capsules & involucrum as 
represented by Brown in the Linnaean Transactions [14]. Our 
plant must be new, though it may have been included in Aspidium 
obtusum by Pursh & others. I also send you a Woodsza as it is 
called, which is probably W. ilvensis, though in this neither can I 
find the involucrum, nor the pedicels of the capsules. 
* [Hooker, Joseph Dalton. A sketch of the life and labours of Sir William Jackson 
Hooker. Ann. Bot. 16: XCIII (footnote). 1902. 
“My father did contemplate such a work, but I am very sure that he never 
put pen or pencil to paper in prosecution of it.”’] 
