
          Ansd. [Answered] Apr. 9th

Louisville, Ky. October 25th 1840

My dear Sir

After a very long interim since the date
of my last, I had the pleasure a few days ago of receiving 
your letter of the 11th Sept., and still more recently that of the
9th inst. [instant] in connexion with Dr. Gray's of the 7th inst. If any
apology were needed for this seeming neglect, I can readily
find it in the arduous duties you are engaged in, and your
labours in the good cause of American Botany. I am delighted
with your North America Flora, the 3rd and 4th parts
of which did not, however, reach me until a day or two ago, 
although forwarded from New York soon after publication.
When finished it will be an enduring monument
of your zeal, industry and research, and will confer obligations on
all future students of our botany as lasting as our oaks or
the mountains on which they grow! I wish you all possible
success and speed in the completion of this great work, and
am truly gratified to find that I have been able to contribute
a mite toward it; and that you have so many collaborators
through all portions of the country ready and willing to lend
you their assistance. The work is truly a national one that
not only should all naturalists but all true patriots lend you a 
helping hand.

As to the plant which you are pleased (with more partiality
I fear than strict regard to my deserts) to propose dedicating to
me, I am of course the last person to say anything. It is to be 
sure, so far as I can learn, almost exclusively Kentuckian and
        