Loyal Valley , Mason Co. Texas 

 January 30, 1880 



Dear Dr. Engelmann] 



In my last letter I did not express myself clearly regarding the various 

 kinds of oaks. The blackjacks, shinoak and white-oak (I believe under the last 

 name the experts mean Spanish oak) in the year in which the flowers are set on, 

 a very small fruit develops which appears only as s small button f and only in the 

 following year the acorn grows to its regulär size, ripens and falls off. There for£ 

 when for 2 years in succession the late frost has not destroyed the acorn - flower, 

 then - if also Liveoak, Postoak and other oaks (which in one year ripen the complete 

 fruit from the flower), - through late frost lose their flowers, - nevert^eless the 

 blackjacks, shinoaks and white or Spanish oaks carry enough mast for the pigs, - 

 because the young acorns from the preceding year are not affected by the frost. 



Is this fact known to the botanists and are all varieties of oaks mentioned 

 in botanical works, which require 2 years for the ripening of their fruit? - 

 then the question should be asked, the answer to which is of particular interest 

 to the stock-f armer s up here. 



Düring the next few days I will have some of the high-stemmed specimens of 

 Yucca angustifolia carefully dug out in the wilderness and brought in. It is 

 alleged that there are specimens with 3-5 hisrh stems, of which, if you are 

 interested, I will pack one with good roots in a specially prepared box and send 

 it to Austin, from where it can be sent to you in St. Louis by railroad, - provided 

 that you think it is worth the cost of the freight from Austin to St. Louis. To 

 Austin I will deliver it prepaid. This yucca is said to stand a temperature of 

 10° R. , there for it should also do well in St. Louis. A small-leaved Yucca, with 

 sawlike serrated leaves (leaf in this letter), which I have often seen on the 

 right shore of the Mississippi below New Orleans as a border for the fields, I 

 have forced upward by cutting off the old and new leaves up to close under the 

 . . . . corolla, to a stem of k - 5 feet and with the corolla 7-8 feet. 



1 



cm 



7 8 9 

 Copyright reserved 



10 Missouri 



