Gay, Jacques Etienne 



Rec. Feb. 5th Ans. Feb. 28th. 



Paris, Januaryl5, 1862 

 Rue de Vangirard, 36 



My dearDoctor, 



One of my good friends, Mr. Durieau, from Bordeaux, excited by his discovery in France of two new species of 

 Isoetes, is now busy with a large enterprise, which without being a complète monograph of this gender, will 

 embrace ail the species that he believes he will understand after studying the necessary materials. 



I did everything possible to assist him in his work, first by obtaining the information from the collection of 

 Mr.Braun, and then in exploring myself the several lakes of Isoetes in the central plateau of France. I did this 

 last summer, in the last fourth of my 75th. year. I also wrote in ail directions to gather ail the materials that 

 could help in the systematic and the géographie portions of this enterprise. 



To this end I addressed, among others, the excellent Mr. Durand, whom I met in Paris two years ago, to obtain 

 if possible, the two species that grow or in Pennsylvania or in the small states that border it: :the Isoetes riparia 

 Ëngelmanni and the Isoetes Ëngelmanni Braun. This good man went into much trouble to obtain both of 

 them for me in good shape and he succeeded admirably. He also took the trouble to write to you about the two 

 supposedly différent types of the,one growing in Wilmington and the other in Darby close to Philadelphia. You 

 answered him on October 25th. He wishes to send the response about whtat I talked about with Mr. Durieau and 

 this is what made me take my pen to write to you. 



You mentioned that you found the Isoetes lacustris in Echo Lake in New Hampshire. This is a novelty for us 

 who have never seen American samples of this species from that Lake This you mentioned to Al. Braun (they 

 have now been returned to Berlin). Thèse were thought by Durieau not be différent from the riparia. You have 

 some samples and I wonder if you could cède one to us with well formed macrospores, for study. 



I have a sample of a Panicum, of which I talked to you about in my previous letter.lt grows here in the 

 Valmorin Gardens. It tolérâtes our winters well but is not able to ripen its fruits. I think it cornes from Texas 

 having the name of Mosquito Grass.lt came via the Washington Board of Trade The following summarizes its 

 principal charateristics: perennis, longissima repens, culinis ex-randica, matrice pluribus, erectis, 1-2 pedalius, 

 simplicibus, vulparum ramosis, eulmorum nodis, glaberrimis, stolonum villosis. Please try to make known to 

 me the name of this unusual plant. The stalks are up to 5 ft. in height in the loose soil of the garden.The leaves 

 are a dull blue-green. 



Among other localities in which you have found the Isoetes riparia, you mention in your letter to Mr. Durand, 

 Lake Winnepeseager in New Hampshire ( it is your fault if I have misspelled the name, if such is the case I ask 

 you to send me the correction in your next letter). Mr Durieau has seen your samples from this location at Mr. 

 Braun' s herbarium and he is not sure if it is the real riparia. But the study that he adds on the stunted sample 



