
          Phil. [Phildelphia] Febr. [February] 16th 1855


 Prof. [Professor] J. [John] Torrey, New York.


 My dear sir,


 I rejoice greatly at the reception of your favor of
 13th instant. I know the mulitplicity of your occupations
 and how little time you have to spare with idlers like me;
 so, you have no apology to make for delay in answering
 my letters. I regret that you have passed through Phil. [Philadelphia]
 the same day that Dr Gray was with us, without knowing
 anything of it; we would have been happy to have
 you both at once at our little reunion of Botanists.
 I thank you for your observations on the small specimens
 I sent you by Dr Gray and for the description of the 
 two violets, You will oblige me much by making [up?]
 the description of the new cornus gathered by Dr
 Bigelow, which you can terminate with the flowers
 of the poor specimens Dr Gray found in my collection
 and which he says he has sent you.


 I have good specimens of Veratrum viride and I find 
 the petals very much unlike mine viride has narrow
 long petals, mine [added: are rounf] obovate, if I remember well.


 Brodeia no1 seems to me the grandiflora of Bot [Botanical] Reg.;
 but it is certainly different from no2 which has much
 larger flowers. This has an obconical [added: tube of the] perianst;

        