
          Ansd. -- April 8th                                Quincy Fla Oct. 1840
 My Dear Sirs
 The letter of Dr Gray was
 duly received & two or three days ago I had
 the pleasure of opening the package of Spanish 
 plants & the still greater one of looking over
 the first Volume of the Flora -- (the first 
 time I had seen it) -- It is really a splendid
 work and one which will be the text book
 for the practical [inserted:Botanist] for generations to come
 It struck me when I first opened the 
 volume that you had thrown our good old 
 time-honoured U.S.aside and written a flora
 of Northern & Western America by the so
 frequent occurrences of ([Mitt.?] mss.) & (Hook fl!)
 But I suppose we cis-montant souls must 
 submit & Again you have used up our old-fashioned
 nomenclature most unmercifully
 & we are obliged to turn over to the index
 and look for the synonym to find our familiar
 friends.  The pubishers sent me six copies & I
 think I shall meet with little difficulty 
 in disposing of them


 Given by A. M. Vail from from the J. J. Crooke collection
 Mar 4, 1907
        