Gay, Jacques Etienne Paris, May 6, 1 853 



Sir, 



It has been only ten days since I received the small package of plants that you were so kind to send me in care 

 of Carray and Clausel, with a small letter dated January 26. 1 will await to respond until the departure of Mr 

 Clauset, which will occur in the near future. 



I am quite flattered to know that my name is not entirely unknown to you, and that its small notoriety was worth 

 a souvenir from you, which will be of great value to me. 



In regards your name, I became acquainted with it already some time ago from your Anthology that opened the 

 arena to the Teratology of Plants and from your old liaison with an old friend of mine, one of the most 

 distinguished men of our times and a docent that I like and have always honored. 



Many thousand thanks for your parcel. It however lacks something, and that is that you did not tell me what I 

 could do to make myself useful to you. I hope it will not be long until you fill this void. It is with this hope that 

 I permit myself to recommend myself to you and to ask you for some spécimens of American plants of which I 

 know you have great knowledge of together with Mr.Braun. For example: Isoetes, Chara Marsilea, Equiserum, 

 Potamogeton and specially the Cuscuta. It would give me great pleasure if you could buy me, spécimens in 

 good condition, of those four genders, that grow in your vicinity or in your gênerai area. 



I have a fifth gender I want to tell you about and which I have studied and would like to write a monogram 

 about, this is the Fragaria. The species of the old continent are easily recognized because they are less numerous 

 ( only four or five) and they grow spontaenously in the surroundings of Paris. They are not found in the new 

 world specially north America. They are poorly represented in our herbariums so we cannot study them in vivo 

 because they are not generally cultivated in our gardens. There they have undergone altérations from 

 intercrossing which does not make it possible for us to know which of the species are really natural. 



Mr. Asa Gray has already sent me spécimens from the surroundings of Boston, some dried and some living. 



My young friend, Paul Carrey, going up the Missouri and in a location 1337 miles north of St. Louis, was kind 

 enough to think of me, and sent me from there, a Fragaria that was among many Cedars. In the state in which it 

 arrived, I could not study it properly, but the samples had ripe fruit. I planted the seeds, with the hope that next 

 year I will finally see the living plant in its first génération, therefore not adulterated. 



I would like to dare to ask you to give me the same service in regards the species that should grow 

 spontaenously in the surroundings of St. Louis. Dried, carefully picked samples, with well preserved roots and 

 stalks, of more advanced growth better than too young, ( there are some characteristics that cannot be seen at 

 the beginning of the flowering season), with perfectly ripe fruits that will furnish seeds that can be sown. The 



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