Fendler, A # 



^•ofS.Lfirinid.d, ». i. mmmni 



Port of Spain, Island of Trinidad 

 West Indies, August 26th I878. 



Dear Doctor, 



I received your note, written in a hu*ry, which was enclosed in Letterman<s 

 letter and see that you are very busy still but also health and well even though 

 you are approaching your 70th birthday. With regard to age, you are not much 

 older than I, since I shall be 66 end of 1*78. I hope you may at. least have 

 15 more years for your work, but it is my sincere with that you have even more 

 time than that. 



mere is not much to tell you. You will probably have hard from Canby 

 about the disgusting affair with the police. Since the British mail steamer 

 is leaving tomorrow and I intend to send five letters with it and weak eyes 

 do not permit me to write or read in the evening by the light of a lamp and 

 since I am very busy now drying the fresh plants, which cannot be neglected, 

 I cannot write a long letter. 



End of May I sent Dr. Gray a box with fifty sets of ferns: each set containing 

 75 ox to 78 species and received the welcome answer from him on the tlst of June 

 that the box had arrived in good condition and that the specimens w#re "nice and 

 satisfactory". I have now 125 species in my own collection and intend to get up 

 to 200. The number of the few I still need is becoming rarer and, therefore, I 

 started to collect plants with blossoms of which, however, I intend to to collect 

 only 9 to 10 sets for sale. I have already collected a considerable number. Cacti 

 are missing almost entirely, but Euphorbiaceae are strongly represented. 



Here in Trinidad, a small railroad is being built (the second one)} it is a 

 pity that I did not learn about this earlier so that I could have been present at 

 the cutting down of the trees. The highest mountain of the island is Tucuche, 5100 

 feet high, which has been rarely visited. I intend to go up there some time soon. 



My health is still not very satisfactory. The weakness of my spine 4s a great 

 nuisance. I also had a very bad cold in July with a cough and a tax* head cold, 

 probably some kind of influenza which I cured myself after a long time of suffering. 

 The place where our house is built will soon become a jungle of banana trees, yams 

 etc. Behind the house, the vegetation is very abundant— ,«any flowers are blooming 

 in front of the house-the time for mangos and breadfruit has almost passed, but 

 the branches of the two orange trees are bending down already under the burden of 

 their fruit which will not be ripe until October. 



The weather in July and August of this year is much more rainy tha*n in July 



„nd August of 1877 I remain, 



Cordially yours, 



A. Fendler ' 



