
          and if allowed to take the field another year 
 without competition, I fear we shall not be 
 able to dislodge him afterwards. And these 
 circumstances I have felt it quite necessary to 
 make an effort at whatever hazard, though already 
 postponed to the last moment, get 
 up something that shall be ready to meet 
 him when he comes out, carrying down the
 Text Book to species for the North, something that 
 shall at any rate be better than his, and which 
 by sacrificing profits, we can supply at a very 
 low price. This may hold the control, in
 some sort, till the Flora is done, and we 
 (or yourself) can prepare a more carefully digested 
 United States Botany, when my hurried locum 
 tenens can go into desuetude.


 I should not have the courage to load myself 
 with this task now when I have so much weight 
 on my shoulders, did I not feel that Wood 
 has been shabby, and were not the plan also 
 quite independently proposed to me by Sullivant
 (whom Wood lately visited) and who volunteered to 
 prepare a synopsis of the Musci & Hepaticae.
        