Hilgard, Theodor Qharles 

 18^-6, September ; 4th 

 Belleville, III. j 



TRANSLATION 



Belle v/ille, kth September 18A-6. 



Please, Dear Doctor, forgive me if I bother you again with a letter, but 

 I have some important questions. 



We have tte oak shipment ready now with the exception of the bark, which we 

 shall finish next; I don't know whether I should take the bark from 2-3 f thick 

 trunks or whether the 1-1 1/2 1 ea thick ones would be sufficient. Should you 

 want the first, I would have to take the bar£k from rather fresh cut blocks 

 from the saw mill; should you want the latter ones, I could take them from some 

 trees in our ygard which still have leaves this spring; now, the question arises 

 whether the bark of this would be the right kind. If it should be better to take 

 the bark from thick trees, I can easily do it. I intend to saw the parts 3 ,ft thick 

 and cut them on the cut sides with a plane down to a thickness of 2 ff, . 



Furthermore, we intend to ship as much of the other deliveries you requested. 

 Lobelia inflata is now in bloom, i.e. the flowering is almost over. We were 

 searching in our vicinity and found about 30 specimens, which, however, were 

 mostly only 1 foot to l8 ff long. It was easy to cut them down to a format of 10xl6 

 (our paper is of that size) and they are dry now. Y e sterday, Eugen rode into the 

 Settlement with the botananizin& drum, near Scott 's farra, where more and larger 

 specimens are growing. They were often 2 and 3 feet high and very branched so that 

 we had to turn over the tip as well as the lower parts which makes the specimen 

 look very "bulby" and does not show the shape at all. 

 Others are short, butonly because the tips had b.een 

 nibbled on or broken off earlier and sprouted a 

 a large number of flowering branches, but they look 

 bushy and also don't show the shape. Fig. 2. n 

 T here are still others, growing upright, 

 with Short branches and 1 1/2-2 1 high, 

 Fig. 3. 



where one had to turn ov&zL^&fe lower, leaveless piece. Now the question arises 

 whether we shoufcd take the specimens as large as possible or of medium size which 

 would show the shape? If sometimes good leaves are lacking, (turned yellow at the 

 edges or nibbled on) we are enclosing small leaves specimens. Furthermore, how 

 small should the main specimens be? Whether they could be small enough so that 



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