
          And. Jany 9th

Rochester Nov. 8, 1842,

My Dear Sir,

Your letter of Sep. 7, came while I was at
the Berk. School. Since my return I have not found leisure to
attend to it. Your Med. Term is now opening, & I hope you
will have a good class, but you have strong opposition, &
will have. Our Class was large[crossed out [?]] very pleasant.

I am
glad to hear of your pleasant situation at Princeton, tho' I
was surprised that you should leave the focus of [science?]
for the country. I suppose the Emporium has given you
most you want, so that you can afford to have it.

I was truely glad to hear that Dr. Gray is at Cambridge,
& in that place. He will honor the place, & get honor to himself.
I have read his "Text Book", it is a fine work of
the kind, is beautifully done, & will give much pleasure
to the student. It enables one to be a theoretic botanist.
But it will take one unaided by a Teacher or the
Lin. Method, a long time to get hold of many plants.
So I think, &, so it is [?]. I believe, if teacher & Lin.
are both absent. I accord to it high praise.
Yet there are points in the Nat. Method, that are by no
means, pleasant to me, not because they are opposed to
the Lin. Method, but I dislike the broad & uncertain expressions
of the [French?] in many things. Lindley turned over
his whole publication, & followed the [French?] at a most
servile rate in his next edition. If he told much [?]
in the 2nd Ed., he could not have done it in the
3rd. I have been in hopes that you & Gray would improve
the Nat. Method, so that it would diserve the
name, while both of you now say it does not, or
is very for from it. And that being the case, & artificial
as it is, in more than half of it, I do not see its great advantage
or improvement. I was much obliged for your unpublished
"Outlines of Botany", & wished it especially as I hoped
        