786 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1886, 



Claytonia should go to it rather than the contrary, 

 by right, — but convenience would call for the con- 

 trary), also Spraguea. 



I have been having a holiday. A fortnight ago my 

 wife and I set out; made a visit to my natal soil, in 

 the centre of the State of New York, in Oneida 

 County ; had a gathering of the surviving members — 

 most of them — of the family, of which I am the 

 senior, — two widowed sisters (one a sister-in-law), 

 there resident, and an older one who came with her 

 husband from Michigan; my oldest brother and 

 family, who have the paternal homestead ; the un- 

 married sister, who passes all her winters with us ; 

 children and some grandchildren. One brother, a 

 lawyer in New York, and residing near by in New 

 Jersey, with wife and two boys, did not come. Another 

 absent nephew is in California, well settled there. 



It is a pretty country, the upper valley of the Mo- 

 hawk and of tributary streams from the south, which 

 interlock with tributaries of the Susquehanna, at a 

 height of 1,000 to 1,500 feet above tide- water, beauti- 

 ful rolling hills and valleys, fertile and well culti- 

 vated, more like much of rural England than any- 

 thing else you saw over here. We wished you and 

 Lady Hooker could have been with us in our drives. 

 The summer air is just delightful, soft and fresh. 



On our return we struck off and visited my brother 

 Joe and family, in the environs of New York, and so 

 came home much refreshed — though, indeed, I 

 hardly felt the need of a holiday. 



Sargent has just started for a trip to the southern 

 part of the mountains of North Carolina, — a region 

 we are fond of and long to show you. 



Now I am going to pitch into Malvaceae. I am 



