
          Recd April 2nd
 And Apr. 10th


 Quincy Florida March 14th 1837


 My deat Sir,


 Perhaps you may be led to conclude from 
 my long silence, that I have wholly forgotten you and your favorite
 Science. I am induced to write you at this time, to convince 
 you, that, although I have been seemingly inactive for some months
 past, I have not been so in reality.


 Since I had the pleasure of perusing your letter of the 3rd Nov.
 last, that of the 22d July has been forwarded from Winchester. In it
 you ask which of the plants, I had the pleasure of handing you on my 
 visit to the North, were collected at Apalachicola. They were the following
 Calopogon - with white flowers, Rhynchospora plumosa & megalocarpa,
 Antirhinum - Coreopsis nudata, Euphorbia inundata, Asclepias angustifol[ia]
 Drosera longifolia? & filiformis, Sarracenia sp. Andromeda mariana &
 rigida (which by an oversight you called A. axillaris) [illegible: Xxxxxia] sp.
 Arenaria diffusa, Silene antirhinum, & Polygala [crossed out] setacea.


 I am truly sorry that I  have not the flowers of the New tree to send
 you at present, but I will hope to obtain a quantity this season. Some 
 ripe fruit was obtained last summer by my friend Dr. Davidson:
 but. as broom must stand its Godfather [?], they were handed over to him
 All the nuts which I have seen, presented that same shriveled appearance
 of which you speak. I am told by one who has frequently been
 in the Indian country, & who is well acquainted with the Aspalaya
 tree, that he saw several trees about 40 miles beyond the Suannee river
 It is said, perhaps incorrectly, that it is found between Tallahasee and
 the Gulf, near the town of Magnolia. In consequence of its strong and
 peculiar odour, it has obtained among the country people the modest
 name of "stinking cedar"! It makes excellent rails, and it is not
 liable to the attack of worms. This last fact I think highly probable:
 since a similar circumstance is stated respecting the red [word crossed out] cedar
 & the Cedar of Lebanon. The appearance of the tree at a distance is not unlike
 the Pinus canadensis. If I rightly remember its branches are verticillate 
 in threes, and these again are universally divided trichotomously.
 Whether, in other respects, it shall appear to have a predilection for this
 odd numeral, further investigation must decide.
 There is another novelty among the cliffs at Aspalaya, at the other
 end of scale.

        