408 CORRESPONDENCE. [1854, 



TO W. J. HOOKER. 



Camekidoe, March 28, 1S54. 



I send a glass bottle filled with the pulp and seed of 

 Cereus giganteus as gathered by the natives, and used 

 for food, the same as what I formerly sent you a small 

 quantity of in a letter, trusting the seeds would grow, 

 as they are not subjected to heat in making this jam. 



I have some pieces of the wood of the great Wei- 

 lingtonia tree, which I estimate to be not older prob- 

 ably than the Christian era. Torrey has no fruit, nor 

 have I ; but there are some cones in Philadelphia. 

 The wood is very like that of the red-wood, i. e.. Tax- 

 odium sempervirens. I hope we shall get the male 

 flowers, but I have no correspondent in California, 

 and Torrey no very good or energetic ones. 



How hard it is to believe that there is a European 

 war ! I trust it will be short. Some of our own peo- 

 ple are behaving very badly about Cuba, but it is 

 mostly talk for effect, and will lead to nothing, we 

 hope. 



TO GEORGE THUEBER. 



Camekidge, 20th April, 1854. 



Dear Thurber, — When yours of the 17th ar- 

 rived, and till now, I have been too much absorbed 

 in college duties to consider it, as I now rapidly will. 



Ranunculus 441. I never liked naming a plant 

 after a person who has had nothing to do with it, as 

 collector, describer, and nothing else ; therefore do 

 not like R. Huntiana. We will wait for some other 

 mode of complimenting Mr. Hunt. Moreover, I have 

 hit on a name which pleases me tolerably, viz., E. 

 hydrocharoides, which, by your leave, we will adopt. 



Thurberia specific name? That is a question to 



