
          Rec'd [Received] Sept. 5th


 N. Jersey - 3 Sept'r 1847


 My dear friend,


 Your kind & valued letter of the
 15 July ! is before me, & I take merited shame to myself
 that it has not been sooner acknowledged.
 However, as you inform me of your purpose to visit
 our friend Gray [Asa Gray], on the 1st Aug't [August], it was not my intention
 to write before your probable return, tho' a 
 letter from him informed me that your visit was
 a very short one, & I ought therefore to have written
 2 or 3 weeks ago. I must therefore plead guilty to
 every thing but indifference to your esteemed
 correspondence, & for the rest, I throw myself
 on your clemency for forgiveness. The most important
 point in your letter is the reference to
 the Phil'a [Philadelphia] professorship, which I heartily wish you
 may obtain, even with the knowledge that Botany
 must give you up, which I should very greatly regret.
 Still my dear friend $4 @ $4500 p'r [per] an. [annum] does not grow
 upon every bough in these populous times, & so very
 comfortable a certainty wd. [would] soon reconcile you to the
 necessary divorce from your early love (Flora).
 It would be a sacrifice, but looking at your dear family, & your own
 anxieties on their behalf, it is one which I feel you ought to 
        