Haage & Schmidt/ 

 1875, December llth 

 Erfurt, Germany 



SggANSLATION 



Erfurt, 11 December l8?5 



Geo. 



Dr. Engelmann, St. Louis. 



Dear Doctor, 



You will be surprised that we have not written to you for sucha long time 

 and won't know what to think about it. An extended stomach illness of the writer 

 of this letter was the first case that all the correspondence xzaariat remained un- 

 answered during the summer and late fall since he was in the habit of daing that him- 

 self. And then, one first encounters something which w is embarassing to write about. 

 When your shipment arrived here end of Maylf the first irapression was that the entire 

 contents of it was not worth the freight expenses. The plants were dried up and black, 

 the seeds of Abies concolor mouldy and spoilt, and Yucca berries also very mouldy and 

 a musty odor from all other seeds led us to believe the worst, namely a total loss 

 of any capability of germination. However, everything was dried up and aired as much 

 as possible and the resuit is still bearable; Yucca and Agave did not germinate. The 

 Abies seeds were completely spoilt which was a great pity. 



Of the plants only some Agave utahensis were still alive; the beautiful Yucca 

 brevifolia completely dried up and black? the magnificent 2 Echinocactus Wislizeni 

 partly rotten; Mammillaria chlorantha and Cereurs Enp;olmanni apparently allright and 

 stayed that way partfer through the summer, bu€ did not show any sign of life and are now 

 dead. 



The entire shipment consisted of good things had we received it safely and at 

 the right time for sale in arder to use the seeds. '7e estimate the value at approx. 

 WO Mark or 4 100 gold. The actual value was under the circumstances half that much. 

 We are sending you a money order for 4 5° in gold. Seeds, of course, are only of use 

 for next season. Should we be successful and obtain a good result from the Yucca and 

 Agave seeds which rnade up the main portion, we shall, of course, be Willing to increase 

 the amount. 



The seeds available from Utah, Abies concolor , Pinttg flexibilis and monophylla , 

 Agave utahensis , Yucca brevifftlia, Shepherdia rotundifolia and Peraphyllum r amosissimum 

 are good and we should welcome them if our price is all right with you. In such ases 

 one cannot know in advance what one can order and at which price, also it is difficult 

 to estimate the value of every item. 



plants, we should welcome a small box of Yucca brevifolia and perhaps also 

 one dozen streng speeimens of Ap-av^fe utahensis , but sent quickfcy and directly and to 

 arrive not later than end of April» 



