
          Kingston, Canada.
 19 May 1863.


 My dear Sir,


 I write to ask a favour
 of you, and I trust you will
 excuse the liberty. I have
 been puzzling over our Canadian
 Woodsias, & hardly know what
 to make of some of them, because
 I have two specimens named W. [Woodsia] obtusa
 by good botanists, [added: both very different &] neither of which
 can, I imagine, be the plant which
 you describe under that name.
 Would you therefore be so kind
 as favour me with a fertile frond
 of your Woodsia, to enable
 me to undertand the species.

        