Ml. 42.] rO W. J. HOOKER. 393 



Next Wednesday's steamer, which takes this letter, 

 will also take, for a short European tour, my good 

 father-in-law, Mr. Loring, with Mrs. Loring, and Mrs. 

 Gray's brother Charles. A rather sudden determina- 

 tion, but we have strongly urged the journey ever 

 since the death of their dear little boy, the little Ben- 

 jamin, who seemed given to be the comfort and stay of 

 their declining yearS, who was born just before our 

 return home, a year ago last summer. The rest and 

 change are needful to Mr. Loring, also, from being 

 worn down by his long-continued labors at the bar, of 

 which he is perhaps the leader in Boston ; I am con- 

 fident it will be of great benefit to him ; and the 

 Old World has much to interest a man of his refined 

 taste. . . . And then Kew Garden is to them one of the 

 wonders of the world, as well as a place with which 

 they have, through us, so many pleasant associations. 

 Should you wish them to enjoy the privilege of seeing 

 the Gardens under your own kind auspices, would you 

 notify Mr. Loring through Boott (for I do not 

 now know what will be their London address), of a 

 day that would be agreeable and convenient to your- 

 self. . . . 



January 4, 1853. 



Wright win now soon be off in Ringgold's North 

 Pacific Surveying Expedition, to explore Behring 

 Straits, Kurile Islands, the coast of Japan, if possible, 

 and to winter at the Sandwich Islands. 



So we shall have no more New Mexican plants from 

 him. 



My new memoir, " Plantse Wrightianse," is now al- 

 most all printed, and contains many novelties. I 

 never had a collection so rich in entirely new things. 



