414 CORRESPONDENCE. [1855, 



It is now time my letter was off, — when lo and be- 

 hold ! — 



Yesterday morning I was sitting here busy with 

 steady work and not expecting much interruption ; 

 now, this evening, my passage is taken, my trunk 

 packed, I am hurriedly closing up affairs, and to-mor- 

 row morning go on board steamer America and sail 

 for Liverpool. I have to go and look after my bro- 

 ther-in-law, who is sick in Paris of a fever. No one 

 of the family can go but me, and I manage to find the 

 time. Mr. Loring pays the traveling charges, and 

 off I go, to be gone, however, not over two months, per- 

 haps not so long ; a week in Paris, another at Kew, a 

 few days more in England ; this must repay me (be- 

 sides the consciousness of having done my duty) for 

 some twenty odd days of discomfort at sea ! 



What have I been doing of late ? Not much ac- 

 complished, i. e., published. Of my " Plantse Novae 

 Thurberianae 'J and " Notes on Vavsea and Rhytidan- 

 dra " I have sent you copies already, but I will send 

 you more. 



A useful article on the Smithsonian Institution, in 

 July number of " Silliman," probably you have seen 

 in the " Journal; " never mind, I send you a separate 

 copy by mail. Some critical notices which I have no 

 copies of. 



What I am about doing, I can always talk largely 

 of. I am preparing a new edition of the " Manual of 

 Botany of the Northern United States," and a new 

 elementary work ^ of a familiar character, to go with 

 it, separate and with original pictures on wood by 

 Sprague, and I am to finish the "Flora" volume and 

 "Plantai Wrightianse" with it. I have determined 



^ First Lessons in Botany. 



