
          1820

 Dr. John Torrey

 Dear sir

 On the other page is a letter to Hooker
 which you may tear off & dispatch with your
 parcel of cryptogamies [cryptogams] & your own letter. I left
 it to yourself to suggest your wants to him, & 
 I doubt not he will answer to your heart's content.
 Smith says he is dragged to death with correspondents.
 deCandolle is hungry as a shark & writes letters 
 by the quire. If your packet has not miscarried
 I cannot answer why he has not answered. Just
 inform him that you will send no more plants
 till he answers, & you will hear from him fast
 enough. Hooker is young & given to mosses
 & will pay a fair price in kind for them.
 Direct your packet this time as follows.

 Francis Boott, Esq
 for Wm [William] Jackson Hooker Esq [Esquire] F.R.S. [Fellow of the Royal Society] etc.
 care of Major T & J D Thornely
 Merchants Liverpool

 Boott is in England & will forward your parcel
 to Hooker wherever he lives. Boott is married in England
 & will probably return no more to this country. He knows
 all the botanists in England & France & will give you any
 information if you write to him, on my authority.

 Yours truly
 J Bigelow [Jacob Bigelow]
        