
          St. Louis Dec. [December] 12th 1844


 Dear Sir


 Your letter of August 2d [2nd] reached me
 in due time; but it found me in a season of sickliness,
 when professional business occupied every moment and
 left me no leisure for botanical studies. So it
 was left unanswered for a while, and nothing was done
 in regard to Aclepiadeae [Asclepiadaceae]. I find that we have only
 two here, not included in your list of New Jersey plants
 of this family: Acerates longifolia and Enslenia
 albida; perhaps also Asclepias amplexicaulis, but this
 last I could not find again since some years.


 In the Southern parts of the state we have some more,
 some species of Gonolobus, and the large flowered
 Acerates paniculata Dcne [Decaisne] (is that an Acerates? I
 doubt it if my plant is really Decaisne's), on
 the northern state line, or perhaps rather in Ioway [Iowa]
 we have a species of Acerates which I think is
 undescribed by Decaisne, but must be near his A. angustifolia
 it was collected by Mr. Geyer 1841 when he was on the
 Des moines River in Company of Lieut. [Lieutenant] Fremont;
 I obtained from him a poor specimen, and a few
 others came with Mr. F.'s collections to Washington.
 I named it then after its discoverer A. geyeri.


 [drawing: plant part? labelled [corolli?] [drawing: plant part? labelled [illegible] [nallin.?]]


 Acerates, [radic?] [cylindrion?], tuberosa, caule erecto
 [simplioi?], foliis [allamis?] linearibus, [margin?] [icubis?],
 umbellis [peedumenlatis?], [pedmenlis?] [pedicellis?] [paulo]
 brevioribus, cucullis gynostegio [aequantibus?],
 apice 3 detatis [tridentatis], dente [intermadis?] brevissimo.   
    
        