
          and within these comparatively narrow bounds 
I have found many things which I never me with before. 
These I will not here enumerate as I trust before long 
to lay the subjects themselves before you. One of my last discoveries 
and surely not the least in point of interest was 
met with the other day (Oct. 1st), the Leptanthus ovalis Michx. [Michaux] 
which I found growing abundantly and in company with its 
congener L. reniformis, in a marsh not far from Frankfort. 
This pretty little thing seems to escaped the notice of all 
other Amer. authors but the original finder. Nuttall could never 
have seen it, since he speaks of the flowers as white! And 
Pursh admits that he never saw the living plant.

I think that you will find my collections of the present 
year less amenable to the objection of over-pressure than formerly 
having adopted  a plan which I consider a material 
improvement on that of pressure between papers only. I allude 
to the employment of thin cushions of soft cloth three or four 
double (I make them of old carpeting or blankets) between the sheets 
containing plants, instead of dryers of paper only. In this way 
the more delicate petals & leaves have pressure enough to 
keep them from shrivelling whilst [crossed out: whilst] thick or succulent 
stems, the heads of compound flowers & find a yielding nidus 
in the cushion, and are consequently not crushed by the pressure. 
To this point I attach more consequence than perhaps the 
most of my brother naturalists, and it is one of ambitions to 
form an extensive herbarium of well made specimens. For 
I confess that I had almost as lief not have a specimen at 
        