
          Ansd. June 3rd

West Chester, Penna. [Pennsylvania] Jany. [January] 2. 1840.

My dear Sir,

Although I kept a bright look out
for Dr. Gray's name, among the published lists of passengers
by the various packets from Europe, I failed to discover it;
and was concluding he had found it expedient to remain
a while longer abroad, when Mr. Durand informed me the
Dr. had arrived at New York; where he & you were again
at work on the third part of the N. [North] American Flora.
I heartily congratulate you, & myself, & all the lovers
of botany in our country, on Dr. G's [Gray's] safe return; and hope
we shall now speedily reap the fruits of his labors and
researches among the Herbaria of Europe. He must certainly 
have had the best opportunities ever enjoyed by
any botanist, to elucidate the obscurities & solve the doubts,
which hung over so many of our American plants; and
there is no one whose career I have so much envied, during 
the last year, as that of Dr. Gray.  It must have been
pure unalloyed gratification, to make the acquaintance
of so many distinguished botanists, to converse with them
on the state, & progress, & prospects of the science, and
to have their aid in settling the doubtful or disputed points
in our North American botany. You will please to present 
to him my best respects, with my felicitations on his safe return, 
and tell him we are all agog to participate in the discoveries 
he has made, and to receive, with as little delay
as possible, the remaining numbers of the Flora, which
will doubtless contain the results of his inquiries, and
put us all right, hereafter, with regard to our disputed plants.
The light which he will be able [added: to] shed on these points, ought
to make the Flora extremely desirable, not only to our own
countrymen, but to all the botanists of Europe; and I
should therefore hope the knowledge of that circumstance
would create a lively & extensive demand for the
work, wherever it has reached. It must necessarily be
and remain, the standard authority, in relation to
all the plants hitherto detected in North America.
        