
          Leghorn [i.e. Livorno, Italy] 19th Oct. 1822


 Dear Torrey,


 You seem determined in order that nothing may be
 wanting to make your letters interesting, that I shall get as few from
 you as possible-- but stop-- I was going to blow you up in my usual
 style, but it is of no use, I'll keep cool. At least however let me request
 that you will in future be more exact in your calculations of dates &
 distances. In a letter dated the 31st July you promise to send a letter of
 intro'n [introduction] for me which has to travel nearly 4000 miles and reach me by the
 middle of August, though I has asked you in a letter which you received in 
 the middle of June to send it as soon as possible. In the same letter
 you tell me to do certain things for you at Vienna although if you had
 considered a moment you must have known that according to my plan
 of travelling it was [nearly?] impossible for it to reach me before I had left
 Vienna. However, it is no great harm done, though for want of your letter
 which would at least have procured me a civil reception I did not see D.C. [Augustin Pyramus de Candolle]
 my stay at Geneva being too short for me to procure an introduction
 through the few acquaintances I had there. One of these few however I must tell
 you, a lady & a deep [blue?] happened in conversing with me on Silliman's Jour'l [i.e. the American Journal of Science and Arts]
 to criticise an article which I believe [added with caret: is] signed "John Torrey." She complained
 that in mentioning the locality the author had not been sufficiently precise in
 stating the soil situation &c. of each plant. I defended him as well as I could
 by saying it was unnecessary in a list of plants which being most of them 
 well known [added with caret: it] might be taken for granted that they grew in similar situations
 everywhere they were found. This she replied is precisely what Mr. D.C. [de Candolle]
 wishes to determine; so I had to give up the argument and you must [recollect?]
 in future. In this case however the plant being collected by Capt. Douglas you
 could not be blamed, and if the lady, who is an American, had ever examined 
 the cryptogamic department of the [far famed Cap. Pl. Nov. Eb.&c.?]
 she certainly would give you credit [added with caret: for] all desirable exactness in this respect.


 I am much pleased to hear that there is some prospect of a renewal of activity
 in the Lyceum [of Natural History of New York]. [John Ellsworth] DeKay you say has set an example of [liberality?] in offering to
 print at his own expense a Cat. [Catalogue] of all the books belonging to the Society. I hope
 he has well considered the expense of such a work and whether his fortune justifies
        