
          I give him as limit 250 pages (brevier type) 12mo 
 (say 300), and insist upon having the greater part of 
 the copy on the 1st March, and that it shall be 
 published on the 1st April. That I may cover the 
 ground of Wood, and introduce it into New York, I propose, 
 if you think it right & proper, to add the characters 
 of the (about 150) New York plants not found in N. [New] England, 
 distinguishing them by a † [cross]. 


 Oakes promises to do it. But our understanding 
 is explicit that if he cannot get through with it in time,
 he is soon to let me know, and to furnish me with N. [New] England 
 matters, when I am to do, not exactly this, but a more
 compendious Manual of the Botany of New England, N.Y. N.J.
 & Penn. [Pennsylvania], that is, the Northern States proper. It will be 
 imperfect & hasty, but it will prevent Wood from fixing himself 
 so that he cannot be driven out. 


 I propose to have a sufficient no. [number] of copies of this 
 (in whatever form it may appear) bound up with the B.T.B. [Botanical Text-Book]
 to meet the demands of the one-book system in New England 
 & New York, and to afford it at a price reduced to minimum, 
 so that nothing is to be made out of it, at least out of 1st ed. [edition]


 How does this all strike you? I am convinced 
 that something must be done, and I will see if 
 we cant have a very popular, & at the same time 
 a pretty good book. 


 George sends his warm regards. 


 I am, Very affectionately
 Yours
 A. Gray

        