THE CORRESPONDENCE OF SCHWEINITZ AND TORREY 241 
of the Mississippi—& Some of them, with whom I have conversed 
on the subject, have ageed to contribute towards defraying the 
expense of sending a person to collect specimens. 
Mr. Nuttall thinks that we may procure a collector on very 
reasonable terms in England or Scotland & he promised to bring 
out with him, in the Spring, such a person, if he could find one of 
the proper description. I propose that we take the specimens of 
him at a certain rate,—say at five or six dollars the hundred— 
the specimens to be divided into lots when the collector returns. 
He can bring home living roots, & seeds, which will be a sufficient 
remuneration for his time & labour, independent of what he can 
make by the dried specimens,—for the country to wh[ich] we pro- 
pose sending him, abounds in new & most interesting plants. If 
the person were quite poor, we might contribute each a few dollars, 
in advance, for wh{ich] we can receive an equivalent in plants. 
Tell me what you think of this & the other plans. 
Mr. Halsey is pretty active in Botany, but he is unable to 
do so much as he desires, from want of the needful. Poor fellow, 
he has a large family to support, & his only income is a pitiful 
salary wh[ich] he receives from one of the banks. I would rejoice 
to see him snugly settled in some professorship. He is well 
qualified to teach Natural Hist[or]y, Greek, & Latin, & the higher 
branches of education generally. 
Do write me soon, & let me know what you are doing & whether 
I shall have the pleasure of seeing you soon in N. York. 
Yours most sincerely 
J. ToRREY 
SCHWEINITZ TO TORREY 
; BETHLEHEM April 11th 1828. 
My dearest Sir 
This happy moment puts me in possession of your kind favor 
of the 3d instant—& I embrace a moment's leisure to answer it 
immediately, in order to assure you that it gave me the most 
lively pleasure, excepting only that passage of it which informs me 
of the frustration of your plan of calling here & thus deprives 
me of one of the greatest enjoyments I long for. Do, I most 
earnestly pray you, contrive in some of your vacations to grant 
