Lemaire, Charles Rec. May 28th. 



Ghent, May 9, 1863 



Very dear Sir and dear Colleague in Science, 



The day before yesterday I finally received, with extrême pleasure, your kind letters 

 dated Nov. 18, 1862 and April 6, 1863. I was worried about communicating with a 

 gentleman as distinguished as you, with whom contact will be for me, of great 

 importance for the work that for many years I have been engaged in and of which much 

 of the material has not yet been written. 



I am furious at Mr. Robin for his unforgettable négligence. He took it upon himself not to 

 see you during your stay in New York . He was to spend another summer in Cuba in a 

 horticultural botanical endeavour. I will confront him directly if I have the pleasure of 

 seeing him again! This type of traveller is not to be trusted. I tremble for him!. 



Mr. Brongniart was so kind to show me one of your beautiful volumes: (Cacti of the ???) 

 It makes my mouth water!! Since my youth I have been an enthusiast in regards this 

 type of plants. A little later they lent me only for a few days, alas! a volume with 75 

 plates. You have no idea what pleasure it is look at your great work and everything that 

 you have published until now. 



It is extremely important for me to have this work so that I can mention it, analyse it and 

 honor the person who wrote it. 



You won't approve of the multiplication of the genders in the family of thèse plants; 

 perhaps I did not know which they where because I had not observed them alive. Somè 

 genders, it is true, such as the Echinopsis and the ? Ditrillocactus and the 

 ?Cinateridis. Also the Malacocarpus, Telecyphora, Anhalonium. Here the shapes 

 are something else!. I have adapted thèse through excellent cuts from this unusual 

 family. I recently created the genders Aporocactus, Cleistocactus, Schlumbergeria, 

 Consolea. I did this by relying on the most serious principals of science: floral forms, 

 staminal arrangements and by information obtained from botanist scholars that have 

 studied thèse plants. In regards this subject I regret not having the benefit of being close 

 to you. I sent you some samples of articles I published on the subject in the Horticultural 

 Review that I publish here in Ghent. I have adopted until now twenty nine genus, of 

 which the majority, are strictly based on Botanical principles. 



Therefore for example your Echinocereus, of which you have more than one subgenus, 

 seems to me an excellent idea. In the Cereus the stamina are depressed and free and 

 they are circular 



In the Pilocereus that I préserve, specially after the comments in the excellent letters 

 from Mr. Console from the Botanical Garden in Palermo, the stamen are free just like in 

 your Echinocereus but the stylus is exceedingly short and the flowers are apical and 

 latéral which is unusual. 



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