St. Louis, Missouri May *J- # lB66 



My most honored Priend 



Today I finally reoeived again' a sign of life fron you, af ter 

 I had believed a long time, that either ny letter never came into 

 your hands, or that your professional activities kept you from the 

 studies of the Cacti.You did apparen.tly receive ny letter, which 

 was written nearly a year ago,"but your reply of past November has 

 never come into my hands. What happened to you ? Cöuld you give 

 ne a short Synopsis of the letter ?' 



Today, I only write to you,to teil you, that your letter with 

 the enclosures is in my hands , , that , however , the little casef has not 

 yet arrived.If you should have the opportunity to send sonething from 

 Brownsville in the future, it should be of importance to know, that 

 our postal Service handle s packages, which do not contain written mat- 

 ter and are not sealed, at very low costs,namely 2 Cents for each 4 

 ounces. I frequently receive in this way plan t s, roots, seed-cones, and 

 that even from California. - 



I hot)e vou studied the Cacti in. all their conditions qu.it e tho- 

 roughly, so thatithe surfte e skippingj routine may finally come to an 

 end t . which # besid.es the difficulty of preservlng these plant s, ,has 

 kept them so much. from the real scientific botanxsts. You praise my 

 thoroughness; that is very kind of you, but the glory is not raine,but 

 belongs to the industrious eollectors, who deliver the material ■ to ne. 

 I mvself, I want you to know, have never seen a cactus in. the wild ex- 

 cept this Opuntia Raf inesquii ( O.R Lngelmann is now Opuntla compressa, 

 Machbr. E.D. ) You are just the man and in just the right situati onr, to 

 study these plant s thoroughly and to discover the no doubt large cir- 

 cle of variations. Do you possibly aecree with me.that a large amount 

 of now accepted species are only different forms, which all meld into 

 each other and are connected through middle nembers. Without doubr, I 



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