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Letter of George E. Davenport 



Hedfrd, Mass. 

 Feb. 11, 1884 



Mns. Rust, 



I beg pardon for delay in replying to your letter but I 

 have been turned aside froai my correspondence and fern work 

 by many interruptions. I was sorry to learn of your trials, 

 I think you have more then a fair share of them in this life — 

 I trust that there will be ample compensation and rewards for 

 you yet, not only in this life but in that better one beyond. 

 I know but little about the Institute now not having been 

 able to attend a meeting for several months. Mr. Warren Ucinnuil 

 of Reading has been Cor. Sec. the rest time. I was in poor 

 health last summer and went to Vermont in August, where I re- 

 cuperated for two weeks on Mr. Pringle's farm. He had planned 

 to take a photographic outfit with him on his next trip. I'm 

 aiding him I became ver interested in it myself that it led me 

 all a«ay from my ferns for some time. Later my mother's sick- 

 ness and death, an accident to my face affected my eyes, and 

 for the first five A'^eeks the sickness of one of my daughters 

 with rheumetic fever prevented still longe£ my doing any botan- 

 ical iTork. Now, however, I am hoping to get back again to 

 my fern work which I act ye$ am ready to give up. I have just 

 fitted Mr. Pringle out with a first class outfit and I expect 

 he will leave for the southwest during the coming week. I 

 hope for his best trip as I have been to prevail upon him to 

 give it up altogether. He is too valuable a man — too precious 

 tho» I know also how invaluable he is to science — to hazard his 

 life in that way, when he can do equally or more valuable 

 wprk in other directions. He is one oi xne truest men I have 

 ever known — pure gold — refined and gentle as a woman in his 

 manusr, ye"b full of raatiiineness. Such men as he are rare. 



I was pleased to hear Irom yyracuse after so long a silel^nce 

 I am glad the oluo is still active. I tufit it -;ill ctill long 

 continue to do much valuable work for Botanical Science, remem- 

 ber me kindly to all. 



Very Truly Yours, 

 George E. Davenport 



