
          [upper right in pencil: 9c. 1847)]


 College - Friday 3 P.M.


 Dear Sir


 I suppose you wish to know the result of
 my tour. In one word it was unsuccessful. I met Dr
 DeKay on the boat _ he took me home with him, furnished me
 guides & conveyance - thus inceasing my facilites to the utmost.
 I was out a half hour the first night & again before breakfast
 the next norning near his house. After breakfast took the
 rout Dr Emmons had pursued. Scoured the plain & went as
 far as the railroad but in vain. After our return Dr D accompanied
 me himself to some localities visited by Dr E. It is conjectured
 that the specimen must have come from near
 Islip. Dr D is soon to write Dr E & will then enquire where he
 found the specimen & of course will obtain no satisfaction.
 I left the specimen & the family will all be on the watch
 for it tho' [crossed out: neither] [inserted: none] of them I fear are good explorers. After my
 return I was out again after sunset & before sunrise but
 not with any hopes of finding the plant. I did better for myself
 than for you gathering 130 pages of specimens some of which
 are already dry & out of press. I like my press better the more I
 use it. It will hold 200 pages of specimens 1 shirt & collars q.s. My specimens
 will be better than the average I make in the city. Could I
 only afford it I would like to test its powers with 402 [driers?] on
 the White Hills next August - not is it certain that I shall not.
 I found a Hedyotis Polygala polyg. - Drosera [arubus?], probably saxatilis,
 Oxycoccus, probably 2 Andromedas (are those sheets of Ericeae in the
 city?) & many other plants I had not seen for years. I committed 
 my usual share of blunders - the worst of which were taking 
 Helianthemum for Aenothera fruticosa & Sarothra without 
        