
          I know of no Botanical news. I have looked at Nuttals [Nuttall's]
 papers in the Phila [Philadephia] journals. What figures! Shall we never have
 a work like the Flora Londinensis? I tried to urge the [illegible]
 to publish one on our plants on the like scale, & as ornithology
 has been so patronized why shd [should] Botany not be? We want
 zeal. We want also local floras with original descriptions
 Darlingtons & Becks add little to our knowledge. I regret you 
 do not finish your Flora, for your first vol [volume], & Elliot's
 sketch are our best works, with Muhl's [Muhlenberg's] grasses. Our plants 
 have been described from cultd [cultivated?] specs [specimens], & we want those who
 live with our wild flowers to give us the portraits from 
 the life. We shall never comprehend synonyms otherwise.
 Lindley has his parcel. I am expecting a parcel
 from Short who is a capital collector. 


 April 27. By some oversight this letter
 has lain in my Portfolio among some
 papers quite forgotten. I am very 
 sorry for the circumstance, as I thought you
 had [recd ? [received?] my ackt [acknowledgement] for your kind present of
 plants. I had a Letter from Hooker a short
 time ago, telling me that Drummond thought 
 of settling in the Texas. Bentham has
 read a paper on the Eriogoneae to the  Lin [Linnean] Socy [Society].
 Browns on Rafflesia is delayed, & [some? no.?]
 of the Trans. [Transactions] in consequence. I have not
 heard from Short. Poor Douglas! 
 Ys [Yours] my Dear Sir with best wishes,
 F. Boott 

        