DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 
UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 
WASHINGTON D. C., JUlV 5j 1888, 
Mr. Sereno Watson, Bo tanic Garden, Carabridge, Mass. 
My dear Sir; — 
I remember when Prof . Knowl ton showed me the 
letter he had prepared for me to sign that I raised the point as 
to whether it might not be asking too much, well knowing how driv- 
en you must be with work, I also asked him if there were no dupli- 
cates and he said there were none, I said that if there was 
anything new you would be entitled to it, and he simply suggested 
that perhaps in sueh a case they might be divided, 
I certainly recognize your right to keep what you want in case 
you determine the plants, but if you have not got time to do it 
you can return them, and I am sorry to have made you the trouble. 
We are as yet in a bad way about getting plants determined, and I 
am hoping to make the Museum independent in all except special 
cases. We have been too long in the habit of looking to Cam- 
bridge as the only mill in which new species can be ground. With 
all the books you have given us we ought by this time to be able 
