790 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1887, 



We have been away from Cambridge very little 

 this last summer and autumn, only on very short 

 visits, or one rather longer one to my birthplace in 

 the central portion of New York, where we had a 

 family gathering. 



There is a lull just now in your political situation. 

 I certainly at your last election should have gone 

 against Gladstone ! How so many of my country- 

 men — I mean thoughtful people — approve of home- 

 rule, i. e., of semi-secession, I hardly understand. But 

 local government as to local affairs is our strength, 

 and is what we are brought up to. Also, our safety 

 is in that the land — the agricultural land — is so 

 largely owned by the tiller. . . . 



We should like to see old friends in England once 

 more in the flesh, and the feeling grows so that I may 

 feign a scientific necessity, and we may, if we live and 

 thrive, cross over to you next summer. At least we 

 dream of it, though it may never come to pass. 



TO J. D. HOOKER. 



Camekidge, January 18, 1887. 



My deau Hooker, — Glad to see the " Botanical 

 Magazine " figure of Nymphsea flava f .6917. 



There is something not quite right in the history as 

 you give it. Leitner was the botanist who showed 

 the plant to Audubon, and gave it the name which 

 Audubon cites, and he died — was killed by the Flor- 

 ida Indians — " half a century ago." He was the 

 " a naturalist " you refer to. 



The whole history and the mode of growth, sto- 

 lons, etc., has been repeatedly published here in the 

 journals, etc. See Watson's "' Index " Supplement, etc. 

 Not that this is any matter, even about poor Leitner, 



