
          Situated, as I am, my attempt, with all the [illegible] I can
 take, will necessarily be crude & imperfect; but I am anxious
 to avoid as many gross blunders as possible - and especially
 such errors as result from precipitation. I shall therefore
 proceed very slowly: so slow, that I fear my printer will
 hardly have patience with me.  My other indispensible en:
 gagements, also, interfere grievously with my progress.  I have
 been, moreover, delayed at the very threshold, by a desire to
 be better acquainted with the first plant on my list - which
 I had never sufficiently examined, viz. Callitriche.  It is a plant
 which cannot be satisfactorily investigated in a dried specimen;
 and I have waited for the purpose of seeing living plants.  Have
 you ever made a study of it?  It seems to be rather imperfectly
 described in my books: & yet I fear I am not competent to
 help the matter much, with the means which I possess.  Those
 parts called bracts & calyx, appear to me to be very similar
 in character, & to originate from the same place - the [illegible]
 being inserted on each side of the stamen, & the latter on
 each side of the ovaricum - as if the stamen & pistil were two
 distinct flowers placed side by side & each having a calyx
 of two opposite sepals.  The only difference I can discern be:
 tween those appendages is merely in size.  With respect to the
 mature fruit, I shall probably not wait long enough to
 have an examination of it; - and it is perhaps hardly worth
 my while - as I am not skilled in such investigations.
       I have been somewhat bothered - to use a vulgar but [ex..?]
 term - with the genus Scirpus: that is, in selecting a satisfactory
 name for that section of the family which is destitute of [?]
  & which Dr. Bigelow makes a subgenus, Isolepis.
 Your adopted name of [Tricholostylis?] seems so strange to me, that
 have a sort of repugnance to it; & yet I am quite prepared
 to separate that section from Scirpus.  Is Brown's Isolepis distinct
 from your Tricholoystylis?  If so, in what particular? & if not,
 why should we introduce a new, hardfeatured name?

        