
          Recd. [Received] Sept. 30th 
 Ansd [Answered]


 Middletown Aug 29th 1834.


 My Dear friend


 I received your letter from Princetown of July 10th
 and yesterday I had the pleasure of receiving another from
 you dated Aug 25th as I did not reply to the first of these
 I will without delay give a hasty account of myself
 In the first place then I find myself too much engaged
 at present with my practice be able to leave. I shall
 however take the first leisure to visit the City and hope
 to pass a few days with you. a few days ago I heard
 of you being in Philadelphia but you say nothing about
 this in your Letter. I wish you could have looked at
 Muhlenbergs herbarium for the Willows with my optics.!
 by the way I wrote to Dr Tully a short time ago asking him some
 questions respecting the S [Salix] myricoides* and wishing to see
 a specimen, after some delay he wrote me a long and very
 candid letter but was not able to furnish me a specimen
 or any information that I hoped for I had asked him to
 refer to the Annals of Botany! I even sent him a
 specimen of what I consider to be S [Salix] myricoides. I have
 never seen it growing, there is non [none] of it in all your specimens
 and I only have it through Dr Hooker. and the same thing is
 invariably named wrong among his plants,!! In the arranged plants
 of Dr Hooker I mean his pasted specimens, the Willow so
 named and from Mr Schweinitz is the S [Salix] tristis in a
 peculiar state, gathered late in Autumn, when the leaves
 are much thickned [thickened]. and here let me remark that
 next to the thickness of the leaf the best criterion for judging
 of specimens at what season they were gatherd [gathered] is the 
 [Amenobuds?]. this character has aided me much
 in studying the Arctic Willows. There is a note
 on the stipules in the book of Seringe on the willows that I
 shall prove to you is incorrect, at least that it does not
 apply to our willows [added: generally] he denies the stipules being
 deciduous. I will not however go into particulars at
 this time.


 This very hot summer has been favourable for the devellopment [development]
 of some fungi I have not found before, on the 23d of July
 I made a grand Collection and amongst them was
 delighted to find a quantity of Agaricus muscarius!
 with the several varietes [varieties] in colour enumerated by Fries,
 as well as the var β [variant beta] squarrosus [Agaricus squarrosus]. the dry weather however 
 that followed after the 23d entirely put a stop to their farther
 growth.


 *of the N [New] Haven Calatogue [Catalogue] of Plants.


 [In left margin]
 I am now satisfied that Ag [Agaricus] muscarius only is like found in the hottest weather and in this respect it
 agrees well with the Russian Agaric and differs from the English did not Schwenitz [Schweinitz] know any thing
 from experiment respecting it. the few I have I think of letting Dr Tully experiment with them.

        