
          three genera I spent there in study made me acquainted with the place
and I have hopes that neither party will regret the thing. At all events
I am going, and whereon I go, I shall settle for some years - as I am
most anxious to see everything in order about me once more - and nobody hates
moving + disorder more than I do. Excuse this, dear sir, for I could hardly
say less. I will now leave it for topics ofmore importance + interest.
Dr. Gray's appointment and acceptance are great things for the N.E. Flora.
I only hope he will get rid of the Zoology, and that the Faculty will
choose a Professor for that branch. The old Massachusetts Professorship of
Nat. Histy, the one Peck held, and the statutes of which require its
Professor to be an Entomologist, is still in existence. Let this then be filled,
with an able man (there is one whose claims are indisputable) and everything
will be well. I know this well please Dr. Gray for I spoke of it to
him - I wish it might please those whose will is law in the premiers! [?]
I do not know what we may not now anticipate for our N.E. Botany,
with such a Head as we have gotten. So long without any, it seem strange
that all is settled. I know how it has been well. You were our only re-
source in difficulties - + minor troubles were without a helper. Was an impor-
tant Florula necessary? It was for one young man to think of it, collect for it,
+ begin it. This work Dr. Gray has embraced heartily. I shall put together 
my materials this winter, I hope, + send my MS to him, when he will insert
new concise descriptions, and finish the work. I did not mean above that
we had not excellent Botanical friends - patrons, here - but there was nobody
of real energy and determination, no one willing to be on head. May
Dr. Gray find every satisfaction + enjoyment + be prospered in all his undertakings
to recieve our Flora. It is not a new one. 30 years before Bigelow's first
edition of his Florula, in 1814, an Ipswitch botanist had determined Micros-
tylis and Comandra to be new genera + his elaborate descriptions are still
in existence in his MS "Descriptions of indigenous American Vegetables", This
was Dr. Cutler, AAS, + the author of a paper on our plants in the first vol.
of the Memoirs of the Amer. Acad. I have planned to give an account
of these MSS - which form 12 curious volumes - and are of far
more interest and value than the pubd article. You cannot resist the
conclusion, in examg these books, that Cutler was a very scientifick and
accurate Botanist, so far as the means + opportunities of a country minister 
        