162 FIRST JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1839, 



I have been seized with a mania for collecting 

 prints on a small scale, and shall send home some 

 very good ones, — to adorn my parlor and study at 

 Michigan, of course ! There are astonishing quanti- 

 ties to be found here. I am endeavoring to get all 

 the portraits of botanists I can, and from this I have 

 been led to pick up ancient ones, w^hich show the early 

 state of the art or old-fashioned costumes, etc., and 

 also a few choice engravings from the old masters ; but 

 most of these I can obtain better in Italy or Germany. 

 Tell Dr. Torrey not to be alarmed, for I shall not 

 spend much money upon them. 



As a general thing Paris is not very beautiful. But 

 there are some magnificent sights, I assure you. At 

 odds and ends of time I have already seen most of the 

 ordinary sights which attract the attention of travelers, 

 but must leave all account of them for the journal from 

 Paris, which so far is addressed to the girls, though I 

 fear it will scarcely interest them or any one else. . . . 



Decaisne has given me separate copies of his 

 papers. He is now pviblishing a most splendid (bo- 

 tanically speaking) memoir upon the order Lardi- 

 zabalese, in which I see he has found out some things 

 which have been known to Brown only, for a long time. 

 He will give us copies, I dare say. He is one of the 

 best botanists here. I like Gaudichaud also very 

 much. . . . 



I have just finished the examination of Michaux's 

 herbarium, which has proved worth looking over. I 

 shall write the doctor more particularly, indeed have 

 already begun a letter for him. Mr. Webb showed me 

 last evening a letter from Hooker, which contains a 

 good deal of botanical intelligence for himself and me. 

 The British Antarctic expedition, he says, is to sail 



