
          Detroit Decr. [December] 27th 1865

My dear Doctor:

I received a letter several days ago from 
Dr. Gray saying that you had returned from California
much recruited in vigor although he had not yet
seen you. Today I got one from Dr. Engelmann in
which he says you will visit Dr. G. [Gray] Christmas or New Year.
I heartily wish both of you all the pleasant enjoyments
of this happy season and a long lease for the renewal
of them in all reasonable time to come. You doubtlessly
enjoyed yourself very much in your visit to the golden
land of flowers although the season was not the most
propitious for the exhibition of its deciduous  or
spring & early summer plants. The extreme dry weather
of summer & fall I am told scorches almost every 
green thing especially on the plains. The mountain
districts I suppose are different. On account of
the great difference in the season I presume you saw
very few of the plants I brought home 12 years ago and 
what you collected must have been very different from
mine. Did you bring many rarities? I hope you did
not fail to visit Greeleys "Cedar of Lebanon"! I hope
also we will get through Silliman an interesting account
of your explorations in Botany as well as Mineralogy.

Early this summer Dr. Engelmann requested me to look
after the Nymphaea alba said by Nuttall to grow near Detroit
together with Isoetes Callitriche &.C. [et cetera] &.C. [et cetera]. In fulfilling my
commission as well as my limited means would allow
I find that the Nymphaea in our vicinity is odoriferous
and bears all the published characters of N. odorata [Nymphaea odorata] with
the addition of tubers on the Rhizoma making it without
doubt the N. tuberosa [Nymphaea tuberosa] of Payne [Paine]. Mr. P. [Paine] writes me that
the N. odorata [Nymphaea odorata] of the East is entirely destitute of them and that
there are specific differences in the [airbles?] of the seed &.C. [et cetera]
        