
           Saturday Evening, Cambridge 


 My Dear Friend 


 I was extremely glad to receive your 
 kind letter of the 5th, for I had not heard from 
 any of the family, except one letter from Mrs. T. [Torrey]
 since I was last at Clermont and I began to 
 be alarmed lest she or yourself had been sick. 


 Take good care of yourself now that you have 
 begun your winter's labors. Your health is too 
 valuable and important to be unnecessarily exposed. 
 You have probably seen Carey before this, at 22 
 Banks St. and I hope will see him not unfrequently, 
 of an evening. He will have told you of 
 Dr. Chapman's very generous contribution to his herbm. [herbarium].


 Blodgett does not seem to insist very much upon 
 a set of his plants, which I suspect could not at 
 this time be very well made up for him. I am 
 glad you think he would send us live plants, like that 
 Convolvulus &c. Do you think he would like a small 
 remittance, and would send us live plants, bulbs, Cacti, 
 & seeds. By improving a little opening that occurred 
 and which I will explain when my tired hand allows 
 me to write more readily, I think I shall be able to 
 use a small sum, a hundred dollars, maybe, for the 
 purpose of getting fine plants. I had contemplated it
 for Lindheimer, but perhaps Blodgett might have 
 some too. If I do not enclose Blodgett's letter in this,
        