2 



May 30,l86l 



Ä few copies still remainv wbich you may want to assign. That 



your princely colleague ir» the territory of cacti S^slri "DyY, died in 



the Spring, you mav ha^e heard already.-His gard.err is sui>posed to 



be naintained, as one hears«. 



Eaton and Asa Gray finally raade it possible, to make the ferns^ 



described by Breckenridge y available. They have been divided up into 



^8 collect! ons by Eatorr and the Smithonian Institute has one of theian 



only for use and with the further determinatioir, that it will : be 



later assigned to the university herbariumn and that those »which 



I had the Chance to 

 are not on hand in duplicates? be distributed for viewing. After}wor& 



% through the loot of Andersson from the South See Islands- by? 



d f lTrville and Lesson, the earlier voids in the knowledge of ferns 



have been much reduced through the ferns of Breckenridge and those 



localities, - Only some less important items ha*, to be looked up irr 



Paris and in Londom but I do not give up such a trip, if it should 



become possible in the near future. 



Last Fall we had hardly travelled 1 for two weeks to Königsberg 



to Caspary, when Leipzig had such a hall, whiclt destroyed the gar- 



SO flu- 



den inj» terrible/way, , that I was called back in a hurry, and f ound„ 

 that we were pushed back through this miserable event for many years 

 , and a lot of work, which I had hoped to have accomplished for ever», 

 must begin from Scratch now. 



With the heartiest greetings from my wife to you and your fami- 

 ly and with the request for a timely communication 



Your most devoted G. Mettenius 



(translated from German script by Edgar Denis orr, April 1988 ) 



