
          to omit nothing that ought to be included: but then will be the
 question, how much, and what, to be published?  If I cannot satisfactorily
 make up my mind on the subject, after looking over the whole
 materials, I will refer them back to Dr. Gray & yourself, for your
 decision, - if you should have leisure for such a task.  I should
 not wish to make more than a fair-sized dollar volume of the work.
 After all, it is somewhat uncertain whether any thing will be
 done, at present; for, unless I can find a bookseller willing to
 incur the expenses & assume the risk of renumeration, I shall
 not attempt the publication.  If I could conveniently afford it, I
 would print at my own cost, and distribute it among the lovers
 of Botany & Botanical merit, without consulting booksellers; but 
 that is out of the question. The work must pay for itself, in some
 way; and I have found that bookselers will do nothing on behalf
 of any work in which they are not directly interested.  Indeed,
 they are not only indifferenct to the sale, - but generally
 rather hostile to the success, - of any book, which is not
 brought out by one of the craft.  The author of [Sketches?]
 of the Great Metropolis, says it is decidedly the case
 in London; and I believe it is equally true in this
 country.  I shall therefore wait until I see what
 can be done.  In the mean time, I will carefully look over
 all the manuscripts, and endeavor to make such a compilation
 as appears eligible.  Perhaps it may be found advisable to re:
 model the whole, and omite a considerable portion of the letter,
 to myself.  Where I shall have got through, according to my own notions of
 propriety, I shall have to solicit the aid and advice of Dr. G. & yourself, in
 the matter; for I have too much regard for the memory of my friend, to
 be willingly concerned in doing it injustice, or in inflicting a bore upon
 the readers of the book. - My eldest son expects to go to Albany in about
 two weeks, & will be returning through New York, in a few days,
 thereafter affording a good opportunity for you to send on the
 package of manuscripts.  If you will have them ready, he will call
 for them - or you may hand them to my son, Edward in Mr. Greeley's office,
 no. 30 Ann Street, who will take charge of them in the mean time.
 Some two or three years since, I left a parcel of S. American [Cyperaceae?]
 with you, to be labelled when you found leisure to do it: if you have
 done all that is convenient to do, in the premises, you may let my
 son bring that with him, also. - I hope you will excuse this long
 rambling epistle - & believe me truly your obliged friend,


                                                   Wm. Darlington


 Dr. J. Torrey, New York

        