
          very nearly "Scot-free"! By the way I had not time to tell
 you during the few minutes we were last together, that I have
 just heard from [Francis] Boott that he has been shipping me a package
 of Carices [Carex], "the most of them furnished by dear [probably William Jackson] Hooker"
 some of which he thinks I shall find valuable. Io paean!
 But don't be jealous-- I will give you free access to my
 Collections, when you are studying!!! I have only jsut
 peeped at Uncle Sam's things. Truly, when I saw those
 magnificent spec'ms of C. macroceph [Carex macrocephala]. I found myself committing
 a breach of the Xth [10th] Command't [Commandment] ! & it occurred to me
 that I must have been a great goose to have pledged myself 
 to strict honesty. However, the word has gone forth, 
 & dear U. [Uncle] Sam. shall not be cheated-- this time.
 I fear you will have to exercise some patience
 before you get your Carices back again, for your
 Collec'n [Collection] is so large, that to examine them carefully,
 as I wish to do, will take me a long while; especially as
 I cannot see well enough to work by lamp-light, notwithstanding
 the power of my Camphene burners, which nearly
 blind me with their glare. I propose to sort all your
 duplicates together, & make one package of them, of
 course reserving the best for your own Collection,
 where your previous specimens were poor, or from
 widely-different localities. Many of the immature
 things, being worse than useless ([cernebrous?] rubbish)
 I have consigned to an inglorious end, as I have done
 in my own Collec'ns [Collections] which I doubt not you will approve.


 Tuesd'y Morn'g [Tuesday Morning]. I find I have one of [Chester] Dewey's green (!) engravings
 of C. Nuttallii [Carex nuttallii, synonym of Carex douglasii], from Sill. Jour. [Silliman's Journal, i.e., the American Journal of Science and Arts] July /42. So it seems he published.
        