
          Ans Aug 20 1838

New York, Augt. 8th 1838

My dear Sir,

I send you a prospectus of the Flora of N.{North] America, a
work which occupied a great deal of my time for 
many years past, & in which my friend Dr. Gray has labored
for the last five years. Part II will be out in September.
Dr. G. has resigned his place in the [?] S. Exped. & has accepted
the appointment of Prof. of Botany in the new University of Michigan.
As he will not be occupied in teaching for a year, at least, he
will probably visit Europe in the Autumn & there make arrangements 
for stocking of the Botanic Garden often [?] with [?]
plants. He will also purchase books &c. [etc.] This is the best
appointment in botany that they could have made.

the point- [?] Flora on our own account & the expenses are very
heavy, we have paid already at the rate of $1000 a volume
for the printing & paper. If we don;t get many subscribers
the work can hardly go on. You must induce your literary
& scientific [?] to take it.

I became much interested in the study of mineralogy last
spring, so that I spent almost every [?] on the subject.
Dana has given us a book that is honorable to him & to our Countru.

Did you ever try the action of Sodium on mercury? I was surprised
the other day to find that an explosion invariably followed 
when the two metals, in a clean state were brought into contact. Berzelius
seems to be the only worker who has noticed this fact. Potassium has
no such effect, but it [?] about strangely on the surface of the mercury
        