Berlin July ^ f 1868 



Most honored sir doctor ! 



If I need an excn.se for writing to you without* prelirainaries,, 



it must be the lively interest, which I take for a long tlne in. the 



faraily of C a cti. 



I becane aware of you for the first tlne through the catalogue 



fron this year of Mr. . Pf ersdorf f . But this catalogue with its simple 



plant naineff, spoke to n.e very clearly, because I learned fron it, that 



you visited all the areas in Hextco, which I vivised" 18 years ago, and 

 collected 



that you "ssKfe seeds of all the beautiful plant s and sent thera to Eu- 

 rope, which I collected then nyself in many speciraens». But of all those 

 original speciraens- only ver_y few are n^esently growing^ and specially 

 the nost beautiful at^ interesting species have died out corapletelyv 

 Luckily, those species have been introduced anew now by you. and will 

 renain now for ever conserved for the europaean colloctions. 



Dr. En^elnann-, who resided a few weeks here in Berlin, and who now 

 departed for South Gernany, had the kindness> to let me read the letter, . 

 which you wrote to hin in Spring, and which he could not ans wer so far« 

 This letter excited ny interest in a high derrree because it conf irraed 

 many experiences, which I had nade during ny nexican journey, , specially 

 the smalll area of distributiorr of nost species and the extrene vari- 

 ability of species, which cover a larger distribution area. I was then 

 much inclined. to consider E. sinuatus and E, sinuatus robustus o^ly as 

 varieties og E« seti sninus En£ln f but later I convinced nyself , speci- 

 ally through exanination of the seeds, that this does not work well» 

 I, also, wanted to take those nannilariae, which Ennrelnann collec- 

 ted later und er the division Coryphanthae , into a section of the 

 Echinocacti ; however prince Saln and Enrrelnann did not a^ree with this 

 at all, and I let the matter rest.. 



. - That ^you drew the _E. Willi ansii and the P elecyphora into the 



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 cm Copyright reserved 



Missouri 

 botan ical 

 Garden 



