
          I have been this season to the district of Maine, as far east
as Quaddy head [added: east of Eastport ult. tem. & up the Penobscot as far as Old
Town, 10 miles above Bangor. I have been somewhat disappointed
in finding so few [added: interesting] plants as I did though I confess
that my opinion of the region has much altered
within a year or two. There is little peculiar to it, it
resembles the North of N. Hampshire, & probably hardly
contains a single new plant & not one peculiar.
I shall probably go once more at an earlier season. I went this
year in July.

I staid [stayed] at home this season till July &
collected & preserved specimens in great numbers & magnificence,
& with enormous labour & fatigue. In fact it impossible
with every facility [added: with nothing else done] & with paper [added: and apparatus] in unlimited abundance, to
make [crossed out: a very] [added: so] great a number of specimens as one would suppose.
The collectionof one day takes 2 days of equally hard work
to shift & take care of, rains & heat interrupt your labour.
& the short season passes away so fast that you cannot
pretend to meddle with half the plants within your reach.
My [crossed out: opin] estimate of the value of specimens
flax [added: especially fine ones] has risen to double this season now 
that I have fairly tried the experiment of
preserving on a large scale.

I shall be able 
to send you abundance of fine specimens of
a considerable part of the species in your
list, some of which I have collected this season
expressly for you & many others which you will want.
You will find in one of my last letters a detailed list
of the kind of species which I wish. Permit me to say,
without intending on giving offence that a more varied
exchange would be more convenient for both of us, if 
it is to be extensive [as?] continued. If I did not say so
in my last letter, [crossed out: please to ?] I now say that I wish you to
use in your Flora all the plants as observations that I
have at any time communicated to you without limit
& I shall be glad to avail myself of your assistance &
forbearance after your Flora is completed. And if you
publish a U.S. Flora I shall be glad to [added: send &] lend you my herbarium,
[added: (something of a show)] on every important part of it [added: with any observations, I may possess] to assist in making the
descriptions as complete as possible. Hoping that you will
be able to read this letter which is written in great haste.

I remain, yours, sincerely,
Wm. [William] Oakes
        