
          Dr. John Torrey   Lexington Ky.  1st September 1820
New York

I have now before me my dear friend, your interesting
letter of the 28th July, fowarded to me by Mr. Atwater.  After having
been too long deprived of your news, I rec'd [received] it with great pleasure,
and it has been highly gratifying to me to hear that you and the
Lyceum do so well & improve instead of declining!

I thank you for the name of the grasses.  I shall verify them
& let you know the result, meantime do not neglect to look again
over N. [number] 20, 43, 44, 60, 61, 65 & 66 which you have left nearly
undetermined.  I shall now make only a few remarks.  Diarina
is really F. diandra Mx.  see his figure in F. brevifolia.  My. a
second spec. [species] of this genus?

The Melothria pendula has red berries, is not polygamous etc.
Betula rupestris belongs together with B. pumila nana [Betula pumila] &
glandulosa [Betula glandulosa] to an intermediate section between the alders & birches
having the habit of alder with the flowers of Birch.  (How can you
say that it is Alnus serrulatus?  which I know so well)  It has several
stamina, and a lenticular winged seed as in B. pumila, but the
scales are peltate-cuneiform & 4 lobes in B. pumila trilobe!

I have published the Hydranthes gratioliodes, under the
name of Hycanthes riparia in Annals of Nature N. 96.  I wonder
that you can mistake it for Lindemia attenuata.  1 It differs from
Lindemia by having [added:a] quite unilocular capsul [added:the filaments not forked] and the upper lip bidentate.
with 2 remote teeth separated by a broad round sinus.  2. It
differs from [crossed out: L. pyxidermis] L. attenuata by the leaves not attenuate
See Elliot's dexcriptions & mine.

I thank you for having got the book from Germany. Since
[crossed out:it is only][added: they consist only of] several copies of Romers. please to send me immediately
one set by mail & sell the remainder among your friends or keep
them at my disposal.  Your box has not yet come to hand.  Mr. 
Collins has not wrote me for a long while, please remind him of
it when you send him the fascicle of plants.  He knows well that
has has only to leave any box of me at Mr. Leanings's.

        