
          you will probably understand from what I have said pretty
nearly what I think of Mr. Robbins, that I do not consider him
as such a botanist at it could be wished might be procures.
(though if he had a year or two before going he might become
such) or such a man as Mr. Pickering of very rare talents.
But if you, Pickering, Nuttall, Schweinitz or myself do not go
I doubt exceedingly whether you can obtain another person equally
qualified [crossed out: as] [added: with] Mr. Robbins. For activity, zeal & a keen eye
in collecting, I doubt if either of those I have mentioned, except
perhaps Nuttall, are superior. I have no doubt that he is
much superior to [crossed out: Beck?] Darlington, Elliott, Bigelow, neither of which
can go. [crossed out: Eaton] Beck, [added: Dewey,] Eaton or any of Eaton's school, in qualification
for this situation.

I have written to him today,
(he is just about leaving home to seek his fortune as a
physician & is going somewhere to the West more for the sake
of collecting plants than for any thing else) inclosing your
letter, & [desiring?] him, if he is willing to go, to write
immediately to you, so that if he intend to offer himself.
You will probably hear from him in a week or 10 days
he is off the great mail road.

I recd.[received] your first letter in due season
but deferred answering it at the time. With respect to the Western expedition though
I have no money at all to spare, I should be willing to contribute my share
towards the fund. But I think that there will be little use in sending to
that partially explored country any but a first rate botanist, & think
with some you mention, that it would not be so well to send a "beggarly
Scotchman" as Dr. Johnson would say, & perhaps [added: one] not well qualified for
the duty. There is a great difference between picking up species in
a new & peculiar region, where every thing is valuable & gleaning the 
remaining species from a region partially examined.

The willow which I
sent you as S. repens I know was not it, when I saw the aments in the
spring of this year. I sent it without examination, misled by my having heard
Nuttall say that S. repens had been found in UofS. which I believe is not
the fact. I was aware that J. melanocarpus was [added: probably] a European spec.[species],
having seen but not examined specimens like it in Mr. Cogswell's
Swiss herbarium. You have all the means of judging of C. Davlliana!
that I have. If Dewey has used up my Carices without your consent
it is neither my fault or neglect in the least. I suppose
not however, [added: please inform me about it] He ought to have named C Davll. if a new species
after Mr. Pickering who first found it. & considered if a new species
as my labels & letters to Dewey informed him.

I visited Saddle 
Mountain the year before last & found it as you describe. By the
way, will you answer a question I asked you in a former 
letter? Have [added: you] a specimen of Azalea procumiens from the Catskills
is it a true plant & will you send me a bit of a specimen.
Rush says that a species of Sedum almost exactly resembles it. You know
        