Prof. J. Decaisne Muséum of Natural History 



Rec.Feb. 16 Ans. April 1 1 Paris, January 29, 1880 



Dear Mr. Engelmann, 



Conforming to your recommendations, I sent through Mr. Westermann Broadway in New York, a package of 

 books that I beg you accept as testimony of our old friendship. It has been one half century since we have 

 known each other, because it was your Memoir of the year 1832 that acquainted us. Actually we are now part of 

 the old guard in the army of botanists. 



The newspapers may have acquainted you with the disaster caused by the extraordinary cold weather of -25 

 degrees, exactly as in Moscow. Most of our bushes froze. I had to rebuild my garden from the beginning. This 

 was so difficuh and I did not know which plants were missing. Nothing was left. Ail the rose bushes which we 

 were so proud of, froze, as did also the trees. The same happened to the fruit trees.The small nurseries were 

 devastated. It looked like the countryside had been bumed. At this time the terrible cold of -25 degrees is 

 succeeded by -13 degrees C. I do not know when this will pass. The believers in acclimatization are being 

 proved wrong; unfortunately those that do not believe in it, of whom I am one, are suffering even more. 



I believe I called your attention a few years ago, to the sterility of most of the Yucca cultivated in our gardens; 

 the antennae are mostly white and very hard. Have you noticed something similar in your garden? The pollen in 

 the loculi of the antennae is totally absent, they contain not a single grain. 



I thank you infmitely for the pièces of Vitis monticola and the stones of the ? Drunus texana, that you sent me. 

 After what I have just told you about our horticultural disaster, you understand why I sincerely appreciate ail the 

 seeds that you can dispose of We grew the Catalpa speciosa; but does it still live? I don't dare confîrm this. 

 The Catalpa syringaefolia had its young branches frozen. It was surrounded, like the Catalpa speciosa by a 

 meter of snow. Perhaps it will survive until the spring. The older trees are practically dead; the same happened 

 to the Siliquastrum. AU the trees and bushes from Califomia are dead: Taxodium,Sequoia, Sinum, Riben. The 

 Cupresus Lawsoniana seem to have resisted and remain among others totally destroyed. I apologize for having 

 told you at such length of my miseries but you understand my despondence, as you yourself are interested in 

 gardens. 



Goodbye, my dear Engelmann, stay well and continue being as happy as we would like to be here. 

 I remain as always your good friend. 



J. Decaisne 



