
          valuable. That thing you sent me, with the Schweinitzian parcel,
 collected by somebody in Key West, is a choice thing, probably
 new. I hope you always send me Fungi when you get them.


 Could you not get these explorers at the West, Texas,
 N. Mexico, &c., to gather Fungi also, when they see them? I
 should be delighted always to get any. Dead sticks & leaves, that
 have any extraneous bodies or matter on them are pretty sure to
 be Fungi, & require no further attention than wrapping in a piece
 of paper, recording the locality & especially the matrix. The
 fleshy species are too troublesome. The woody Polypores &c. are apt
 to be destroyed by insects, unless poisoned, & are often bulky. But
 what I mentioned first would give very little trouble to a collector.
 And if these men choose to distribute such species,
 I will elaborate them with the aid of [Miles Joseph] Berkeley. 


 I think my Asclepias aceratoides must be A. [Asclepias] obovata, Ell. Let
 me know what you think of it, when you get my specimens. Unfortuately
 I have not succeeded in finding fruit yet. There were
 plenty of flowers this year, & that is all. 


 The [Louis David von] Schweinitz plants you sent me are very choice.
 I have no doubt what some are, of those deficient in names, but
 of others it can never be ascertained, without comparison with his
 Herb. [Herbarium] specimens, what was intended, at least beyond mere probability.
 This is a great pity, as authentication is of high importance
 in so obscure a class. I am rapidly increasing my stock of
 authentic species from European Authors, & hope to leave behind
 me a good stock for future Mycologists in this country to begin

        