
          Recd. Deb. 12
And. Oct. 24

Cambridge 7 Oct. 1839
Dear Sir
You must excuse another encroachment on your
valuable time, as I cannot but tell you how much I was delighted
(I need not add instructed) by your letter of the 4th [?] just recieved.
I regret that my package did not reach you as I had intended - and
will take care that this shall not occur again. In regard to the
many errors of my labels, though some are not remarkable in one so
little advanced in the science, others are owing entirely to the fact, that
I packed up specimens of all my Cyperaceae - before I had myself studied
them with thebooks. The Cyperi I had not looked at with a lens nor
compared. And the Scleria was in precisely the same case. Mr. Oakes + I were
both too busy in collecting to make any examination of our plants. And I su-
pposed this to be (of course) our Mass. already sp. unknown to me, wih [?]
was triglomerata. But the very morning of yesterday (I received your letter
yesterday evening) I studied carefully the plant + before I read your correc
tion of my label, had it finally put away in my herbarium as S. retic-
ulata." This is gratifying [added: to me]-- and yet it seems I could hardly have helped
reaching this conclusion - as the agremeent of the plant with the description
is perect - and your remark also in regard to the distinguishing char. of
the nut could hardly escape notice in studying it.
I have never seen much of Lactuca integrifolia. The Cambridge sta-
tation is a sandy common - producing Aristida dichotoma, Paspalum
ciliatifolium + Viola vaginifloa, and here it is very distinct - as
(I think) my specimens shew. I have already supposed the sagittate
leaves to be the best character of our plant.
With respect to the subalpine Viburnum which you appear to consider
V. edule of Pursh (it seemed to me you did not speak decisively, but perhaps
I have rrred i this) I cannot but say that if this is Pursh's plant, it
strikes me he has characterized it incorrectly as well as imperfectly. And 
then he found his plant on the banks fo rivers throughout a large extent of the

        