Lemaire, Charles Antoine Rec. Jan. 11, 1858 



Ghent, Nov. 7, 1857 



Sir and very honored comrade in science, 



During a récent trip to my beloved city of my birth (Paris), my friend Decaisne told me 

 that you had a collection eyes and that you cultivated ail the species of Cacti that we 

 were able to collect. You published a grand memoir on thèse plants that I have 

 unfortunately not been able to buy, but that I would like to consult. # 



# Would you be so kind to send me a copy which would include ail the ones in Mexico. 



I myself have studied those beautiful plants and have published several works on the 

 the subject. At this time many amateurs and correspondents are pressing me to recollect 

 in one volume ail what one knows about thèse plants, work destined to take the place of 

 an unfortunate book published by Mr. Labouret, where on each page and each line there 

 are mistakes of ail types. This made it more difficult for us to cultivate thèse plants. 

 Unfortunately the rarer collections have become less fréquent. On top of this, as you 

 well know, never or nearly never do the Cacti cultivated in Europe show their true 

 characteristics, mostly in regards the dimensions of their thorns. Under those 

 circumstances, a good botanical work on Cacti, written here, would be extremely difficult 

 and even impossible. 



Therefore, I frankly corne to ask you for your help and your scholarly collaboration. You 

 could send me here, ( small but well classified) cacti that you cultivate with their exact 

 names: Mamillaria, Echinocactus, Echinopsis, Echinocereus, Cereus, Opuntia ( 

 small spécimen with or without branches). I beg you also to confide in me your notes, 

 and your observations which will be published with your signature. Thèse observations 

 collected by a scholar as compétent as you on this subject and on many plants, will have 

 immense value in a book published in Europe. 



This book that I want to produce, will have your name under the title, as collaborator, if 

 you feel comfortable with the idea. The other works that I have published in Paris and in 

 Ghent, on Cacti and other plants, and my large periodical publications, ail are a 

 guarantee of my zeal and good faith in regards this subject. 



The live plants that I will be receiving from you will allow me to rectify the numerous 

 errors made by German authors, that have created species from plants grown from 

 seeds and when compared to those from their native land, do not have any physical 

 resemblance. Many of the varieties described by Ehrenberg fall into this category. In 

 other words, Mr Engelmann, even though we are separated by the Atlantic, we could 

 produce a beautiful and good book, useful to science, useful to amateurs and an honor 

 to thèse beautiful plants. 



The plants that you are sending me, well dried, packaged and preserved against the 

 océan water, could, thanks to the steamers arrive at least in 6 weeks via Ambers or Le 

 Havre or an English port. ( However the expédition could take place until after our winter 

 that is to say until after May or better yet June.) As far as I am concemed I could, if you 



