
          Raleigh, N.C. Feb: 17th. 1837


 Ansd [Ansd?]. April 11th


 Dear Sir,


 Your letter of Jan: 3d.. reached me
 yesterday, it having been kept a long time at Wilmington.
 A letter from Dr. Gray came with it.


 I should hardly have trouble you with a reply so
 soon, were it not for a passage in your letter which
 for a moment perplexed & then amused me. I mean
 your joke upon my Pyrus coronaria. Now I can
 assure you that I plucked many a fine crab-apple [crabapple]
 from that same Acer rubrum [underlined: Acer rubrum], as you call it. And
 furthermore, I saw scores of such fruit trees in the 
 mountains with leaves exactly similar. The same
 tree, which furnished the specimen I sent you, furnished
 me with apples [underlined: apples] which I long preserved! There is but
 one way in which I could have mistaken. I might
 possibly have thrown in a specimen of A. rubrum in 
 a hurry, & labelled it Pyrus coronaria, because that 
 platn was in my mind at the time. But this is
 not very probable, for I have not a specimen of A.
 rubrum, with leaves [underlined: with leaves], in all my collection! I think
 therefore, that another examination of the specimen,
 with Michaux' plate before you, will convince you
 that it is a genuine Pyrus coronaria! When I sent
 this plant to you, I was in doubt about it because
 I had always considered P. augustifolia, which I had only
 seen, as the true coronaria. P. august: is abundant in
 the low country. Perhaps it is only a variety. 

        