300 CORRESPONDENCE. 



volume, now being published, it cannot be published until some time during next Congress, if 

 at all ; before which time the French and English, who have each been over the same ground 

 since we explored it, may publish and take all the credit and priority from our government, to 

 which we are entitled, having been the earliest visitors. 



I would, for these reasons, beg you to send the manuscript to Professor Asa Gray, Cambridge, 

 Massachusetts, who will attend to the publication, if you should deem such a course proper. 



I have the honor to subscribe myself, your obedient servant, 



JAS. MORROW, 

 Agriculturalist to the Japan Expedition. 



Hon. Lewis Cass, Secretary of State, Washington. 



Cambridge, April 16, 1857. 

 Dear Sir : For a month or more the Secretary of State has been in possession of a report 

 made by me upon the botanical collection made in Japan by Drs. S.Wells, Williams, and Morrow. 

 Should you wish to print it in your work, I am disposed to think that it would be at your 

 service. If not so used it will probably be published elsewhere. In any case it would be needful 

 that I should read the proof. 



Very respectfully, yours, 



ASA GRAY. 

 Commodore Perry, U. S. N. 



New York, April 23, 1857. 



Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a communication from the Department 

 of State, bearing date the 21st instant, together with a packet containing descriptions of certain 

 botanical specimens, collected by Dr. Jas. Morrow and other persons attached to the late 

 Expedition to Japan. 



Although the materials for my report had been, as I had supposed, entirely completed and 

 prepared for the press, and the greater part actually printed, I have thought it advisable to urge 

 upon the Superintendent of Public Printing the propriety of inserting the valuable papers of 

 Professors Gray, Sullivant, and Harvey, as well out of respect to these scientific gentlemen as 

 because of the very great interest which is attached to- the natural productions of a country 

 hitherto so little known ; fortunately this can be done without inconvenience, as the printers 

 are now engaged upon the department of Natural History. 



I cannot refrain, however, from repeating the expression of my regret that these descriptions 

 of the plants had not come into my possession at an earlier period, as in such case I could have 

 published, in connexion with the letter-press, the beautiful botanical drawings which I had 

 caused to be made from nature, and which have now become useless. 



It would have given me much pleasure to have introduced into my report the whole or at 

 least a part of papers No. 2, or the diary of Dr. Morrow, had it been received in time to be 

 printed with other matter upon the subject of agriculture, already in print. It only reached me 

 yesterday, and of course too late for insertion in its proper place. 



The general orders promulgated in the squadron, by authority of the Secretary of the Navy, 

 required that all notes, journals, and collections in every branch of science should be considered 



