
          Recd. [Received] Decemb. 20, 1845

Royal Gardens, Kew. 
Nov. 27, 1845.

My dear friend,

I am pleased to have 
the copy of Fremont's report 
with your account of the plants, 
but I did not like the charge 
of £3.18. It seems to me that 
people must be out of their 
senses to send such things by 
post, or they must think we 
are made up of money if we 
can afford to pay for them. 
That, & 3 other such letters 
from India, were, on the same 
day, charged to me £9!! I am 
the more vexed because by the 
Royal Mail Steamer anything 
botanical coming to me, properly 
directed, comes free, & that is now 
pretty well known to my correspondents. 
It must be addressed "On Her Majesty's Service, 
[added: by Royal Mail Steamer]
To the Secretary of the Admiralty, 
London."
"For the Royal Gardens, Kew."
It is then immediately forwarded 
to me. My Boston friends too 
often put on my ordinary address 
& thus I pay the piper.
        