
          Wms. Sept. 20th 1819

My Dear Sir,

I have been absent a fortnight from town,
& on my return found all your letters to Sept. 3rd &
the little box of minerals. The larger box I had rcvd. [recieved]
just before I left. But as an examination & [?]
kept me employed for some time, I could not acknowl
edge the receipt of the box. Not by your fault, it was
so long delayed, - but I had almost given it up, & feared
I should not see the plants till frost had destroyed the
[?] of those around me. I now hasten to write
you, to [relieve?] your suspense about your letters 
to prevent your rewriting them, & to make you my
acknowledgements for the favors. I can not now answer
your letters but in part. I have not found Tilia pubescens
in flower or fruit, & if I labelled a specimen thus, it was
from [?]. Of the Cistus canadensis, I found no
flowers last year - but the [?] inclosed in the calyx
with 3, 4, 5 filamnets, & could make it nothing but Lichia.
If Linnaeus found it thus, I can conceive of a mistake,
which I should have thought impossible, & which is actu
ally impossible when the flower of Cistus is [seen?] I did not
expect to have my  name mentioned with Linnaeus even
on a mistake - & feel much honored. But I had the
[?] also of an excellent botanist.

I am glad to hear from some of the Cryptogamis, not
that I shall ever know any thing about them - but to know
what they can be called. [?] named one right - good in
couragement to proceed, if I had time to bestow upon them, when
one is right without much time. To be serious - I have not the
means or time to examine them, if I had discernment enough.
        