SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 

 UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 



May 17, 1921 



Mr. Walter Deana, 

 29 Brewster Street, 

 Cambridge, Massachusetts. 



My dear Deane : 



Dr. Blake told me a lew days ago that he had seen 

 you in Cambridge recently and how much he had enjoyed 

 seeing you again. I have heen intending to write you 

 for a long time, but somehow I have kept putting xt 

 off from week tu week. Mrs. Rose was afraid that you 

 might be sick again as it has been so long since we 

 have had any word from you. 



Rebecca and Martha have just returned from a week's 

 visit in Princeton. George is just closing his Junxor 

 year. He is looking forward to entering Harvard Law 

 School as soon as he gets through Princeton. My 

 mother has spent the winter with us and is planning to 

 leave next weeJc for her home in Indiana. 



I expect to go to Few York next Monday for a 

 few days with Dr. Britton to work upon the fourth volume 

 which is well advanced. The third volume was turned 

 OVQ^ to Mr. Barnura last January, but owing to the con- 

 jested condition of the office, the volume is still in 

 the editor's hands. Just now however he is at work 

 upon the illustrations and we hope soon to see proof 

 of it. 



I am to-day reading proof of a little paper which 

 the Smithsonian is publishing for rae on a remarkable 

 Cactus from Haiti. This plant was first collected by 

 Plumier about 1696. It wa.j overlooked by Linneus, made 

 the type of a new species in the genus Cactus by Lamarsk 

 and referred to the genus Cereus by De Candolle, but 

 no one has collected good material of it until 1920 

 when one of our collectors here rediscovered the plant. 

 It is one of the largest and most curious of all the 



