
          inuring to them no matter how long after
 us they may have collected them if they succeed
 in publishing them before us. 


 In a conversation with Mr. Commissioner
 Bartlett on this subject he seemed to think that
 our plants should be preserved until the termination
 of the Survey of the Boundary line, and
 then published in a volume under the auspices of 
 the Boundary Commission. The great objection 
 to this plan is the delay that must unavoidably
 ensue before they can be reduced so that many 
 of our new plants will be found and published 
 by explorers after us.  We would thus be deprived
 of the priority we are entitled to in their discovery.


 As the plants I collected on our route from San Antonio to
 this place were not legitimately in the survey, Mr. B.
 is not particular about them. But those collected hereafter 
 he says he will allow to be used in no other way. 
 If a book of our collections should be published I 
 consider myself in duty bound to furnish the collections
 made on this route to be incorporated in it and the full
 credit to enure to the Commission.


 Most Respectfully yours &c [etc.]


 John M. Bigelow


 Surgeon US & M B C [United States & Mexico Boundary Commission]


 To Prof [Professor] Henry


 Smithsonian Institute 

        