
          Manchester, N.J. Oct 30th 1843


 My Dear Friend


 Your letter dated 14 - 15 & 17 mailed
 on the 18th Inst. was not recieved until the 27th
 on return mail day - which circumstance will account
 for my not returning an answer before now.


 Respecting the species of Viburnum found on the
 Essex Mts. I can only inform you from memory what I
 saw of it (having collected a supply of specimens, Cheney
 running on without waiting to give me time to put
 them up, and the day being exceptionally hot, before I
 could secure them they were so withered as not to
 be fit for specimens & therefore thrown away.)


 I found them growing on the Rocky Banks of 
 the Hudson far up the Mountains, in clumps of
 ten or a dozzen together - beautifully in flower -
 flowers milky white (I think) but more showy than V. acerfolium
 cymes small not more than inch & a half perhaps
 only one inch in diameter - No radiant flowers in
 all that I saw & I could not have been mistaken
 in this particular - for I saw and collected V.
 oxycoccos a day or two after at the bridge where the road
 crosses below the outlet & was struck with the
 difference between the two shrubs - the latter
 having an abundance of radiant flowers and resembling
 exactly the V. oxycoccos as it grows at Oriskany. -
 I have seen the latter cultivated for years in
 gardens without apparently changing its habits in
 flowering and generally bears very well. -


 I have only seen & collected V. pubescens in flower
 on the shore of lake Ontario near Sacketts Harbor


 I have no specimens of Xylosteum oblongifolium unless
 it be the same as X. solonis of Eaton Dr. Douglass gave
 me a specimen collected about Vernon, I think I found
 the same thing on the summit of Mt. Marcey.


 With respect to my son's fever - He became convalescent
 soon after the date of the letter in which
 I made mention of his sickness and is able to walk
 about a little - but is still quite feeble
  
        