
          [in pencil: [1847?]]
 Tuesday Morng. 13 Apl. [April]


 Many thanks, dear Doctor, for your few lines, rec'd [received] yesterday.
 Here I remain, & for aught I see, am likely to do so for some
 time to come, as my work gets on very slowly. I endeavour to
 examine every species for myself, where we have the means, &
 this, with an hundred other little matters for ever occurring,
 keep me from "going-a-head" as I should desire. I shall be glad
 to see your S. myricoides [Salix myricoides], if it turns up. As to Barratt [Joseph Barratt], I am
 utterly amazed that the study of a life should have taught him
 no more. Our material (re. Sal. [Salix]) was very imperfect, but I brought
 on my brother's [Samuel Thomas Carey] incomplete set, from Barratt himself, & had
 hardly begun to study them, in earnest, before I discovered
 what, from his casual remarks in the Flor. Bor. Am. [Flora boreali-americana] I think
 Hooker [William Jackson Hooker] suspected, that the Duke had far more conceit of his
 knowledge than the amount of it warranted. However, I 
 have paid no regard to him whatever, & have made wild work
 with his tribes, using them in whole, or in part, as it suited
 me, in the present reduced number of species. I enumerate
 22 - following Koch in uniting S. decipiens [Salix decipiens] with S. fragilis [Salix fragilis]
 which I have long done, in my own mind, also putting down
 other species, & particularly those of "His Grace," & amongst
 them, alas! the day! S. Torreyana! I should like to see
 a piece of your S. petiolaris, what I so call, is quite
 distinct from S. grisea. Can you send a leaf & [female symbol] ament?
 As to Populus, we were very badly off indeed for exemplars,
 but I feel satisfied with them. We retain 7 species. You
 will remark that it is strange that neither Mx. [André Michaux] nor his son [François André Michaux]
 found P. monilif. [Populus monilifera, now Populus deltoides subsp. monilifera] a tree so generally diffused, but how is
 it you did not suspect that his P. canad. [Populus canadensis, now Populus deltoides subsp. monilifera] is the identical
 plant, which to my mind, is perfectly clear, & my good
        