EDITORS: 
JOHN M. COULTER, 
WABASH COLLEGE, CRAWFORDSVILLE, INO. 
CHARLES R. BARNESj 
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON, WIS. 
J. C. ARTHUR, 
PURDUE UNIVERSITY, LAFAYETTE, IND, 
November 3.1890, 
My dear Dr.V/atson 
I think ttiat ny last letter to you must have miscarried. 
I wrote nearly three weeks a^jc, asking you to send me a copy of Render- 
son’s Handbook of Cultivated Plants, the revised edition (1890). I al- 
so suggested tv/o plans of proceedure for determining wtat species of 
cultivated plants it ssss best to admit, and asked your advice as to the 
more desirable. ¥Jould it be better to request the leading florists, 
nurserymen and seedsmen to indicate in their catalogues what species 
are most generally cultivated , or better to make out a list of those 
plants that I can ascertain as widely cultivated and send the list 
around for suggestions and corrections ? 
I am already mciking some progress with the work , omitting for the 
present the cultivated species. I have adopted the slip system by 
means of thich I can insert at any time in proper place the cultivated 
species. As soon as I have completed the Ranunculaceae I shall send 
you a clean copy of the MS. for suggestions. Already I am confronted 
by numerous questions , which I am saving up to propound to you when I 
am ready to send on the sample. Questions as to method chiefly, they 
are. l am anxious to get at th^e cultivated species as soon as 
possible, and I hope that this letter will reach you and receive your 
attention as soon as convenient. 
