
          Middletown Jany [January] 15 1829

My Dear Friend,

You will see by the enclosed Letter that I have
not forgot your kind attention, though I did not think
my Letter of sufficient moment to trouble you with postage.
Mr Lyon has kindly offered to convey any thing to NY.
I shall therefore trouble him with Letters.

This Gentleman is a particular aquaintance [acquaintance] of Prof. Johnson
and has passed a few days at Middletown. He has
travelled extensively as a surveyor, was with Gov.
Cass, and can perhaps give you some information of
Mineralogy of the West and of the large mass of
native copper near Lake Superior.

He mentioned a plant well known to the miners
in the districts where the ore of Lead is found, which
serves to indicate the the presence of the ore. He has
not a specimen and did not know its name.
From his description I suspect it may be a Potentilla
and probably the Potentilla recta of Nuttall.

I shewed him all the specimens in my herbarium
of this Genus-- had not the plant described by Nuttall.
If quite convenient perhaps you will be so kind as to shew
him the plant in question. The roots he says are 15 feet
long. I know of no such plant by the Books. The Euphorb [Euphorbia]
Ipecacuanha [ipecacuanhae] has remarkable roots. I shewed him
the plant but it is not this.
        