
          Near Louisville Ky. March 22d 1852

My dear Sir,

Your obliging favour of the 5th. inst. [instant] has been
some days before me, and it has occurred to me that your young 
Swedish friend, if he has not the prospect of better and more profitable 
employment, might be willing to undertake a mission to
the mountains of North Carolina, and to spend some months there
in investigating their Botany. Is he sufficiently familiar with
our language to get along conveniently with the rude scenes,
& perhaps the still ruder inhabitants he may meet with? If
you think he is the proper person to undertake such an expedition,
and to make a thorough exploration of those regions,
if he has not better business before him, and is willing to
undertake this, I will pay his necessary expenses, together
with a reasonable compensation for his time and services, 
the understanding being that all his collections are to be equally 
divided between Dr. Gray, Mr. Carey, yourself, himself
and me. I should suppose it would be entirely convenient
for him to collect and preserve well at least five specimens
of everything of interest he may meet with. Indeed, my own
Herbarium is sadly deficient in good specimens, even of the common
things of these mountains; for I have received nothing
from them except through Messrs. Curtis and Buckley, who seem
never to have travelled with the necessary equipment for ma [making] 

        