John Torrey letters, 1831-1873. Asa Gray correspondence files of the Gray Herbarium, 1820-1904. gra00078. Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University.

Princeton, July 12th 1836.

Dear Doctor,

We are all settled at a farm house about two miles from Princeton. The children have plenty of room & abundance of fruit & milk. They are well but Mrs. T. is feeble. She is always in poor health for a few days after a change in residence. If she were better, she would write to you, but you must not expect a letter for se= veral days yet. I have not had time to finish my paper introduction to the Cyperaceae — but I hope to send it to you in a day or two. As I am obliged to take two long walks every day, & nothing can be done at the house in the way of study. I am able to do but little except attending to the preparation for my lectures.

I found a letter here from Gov. Marcy. He is very friendly & wishes to know when & where I will commence my operations as he intends furnishing me with recommenda= =tory letters. Hitchcock has been obliged to resign his situation in the survey owing to ill health. I have seen nothing more about the appointment of Jackson.

We have a new no. of Silliman & I suppose that my copy has reached No. 30. It is rather thin. Dana seems to have

written a good paper on Siamese crystals, as he seems incli= =ned to call the old fashioned hemitropes. There is no Caricography — so you will have to add or alter from Dewey.

I have {received} no proof sheet from you, so that I suppose the printing has stuck again. Really we must call on {General} Morton to fire the great guns when this opuscula if is finished. ___ Will you ask my brother when he goes to town in his gig if he will send Mr. {William} Oakes' box to the Boston Steam boat & rail road office? His boy will take it, & let him take a receipt for it, if they will give one —

{Hardy Bryan} Croom was to set out for the springs the day after I left N. York. I fear he is not long for this world. His health is decidely more feeble than it was last year. It will hardly be worth while to write out the paper on his two Coniferae until the 3rd vol. is published. I must get Halsey to make a good drawing, with depictions of the new genus.

When you get through with the hardest part of the work at the Lyceum you will, perhaps, be disposed to drive at some other monograph, or write out some of the families for the Flora. I should be glad to have you reserve a part of your time for this, or other matters con= =nected with my botanical pursuits, as much as you can spare for $300 per {annum} — beginning with the 1st of August. I shall not be able to take a larger sum from my income for the

ensuing year, as I am resolved (D.V.) to pay off every cent that I owe, & to keep a little in reserve in case of a change in my circumstances. Next winter will almost certainly be a dull one a the Med. College & there may be impediments thrown in the way of the division of the estate in which I am interested.

If you are hard put to it for matter to fill up a meeting at the Lyceum, you will find in one of the lower drawers (right side) of the red case in the inner study, a collection of minerals, left with me for the Lyceum by Dr. {Ebenezer} Emmons. They were to be held back till his paper appeared. He has at length publisihed in the last No. of Silliman. I see his he has been practicing Nicol's method of grinding down fossil wood. I taught him the preceps when he was last in New York.

I must break off to prepare for a recitation. Please give the enclosed $5 to Louisa. It is her wages.

Your sincere friend J. Torrey

[postmark] PRINCE.n N.J. JUL 12

PAID 20

Asa Gray, M.D. Lyceum of Nat'l. History, New York

Princeton, July 18th 1836.

Dear Doctor,

Your letter of July 11th, crossed my first, — & since that was received I have become a second time indebted to you for your interesting epistle of Thursday last.— So your blushing honors are coming in thickly! What shall we do with all these outlandish parchments? I will sell mine — (as least some of them) for less than their first cost. I have written to Edward Shaw respecting the last parcel of books — but I fear that it will be a long time before it reaches us. Sooner or later I suppose it will come to hand — for I have never lost any considerable parcel yet. The Brazilian grasses woul aid us greatly in determining our southern species & we must have the work if we send for it again.

I am glad that the learned Mr. {John Putnam} Batcheldor has returned my copy of the work on Palenque. Will you see if you can get it forwarded by a private opportunity, to this place, as I have promised it to Prof. Henry. I will give him, also (as he is greatly interested in the subject) the bas relief from the ruins — for I did not present them to the Lyceum — & they hardly come within the limits of purists.

Have you received any more letters from Dewey or Carey? These lovers of Caricography must have had a delightful meeting! But I fear we shall disturb the security of our Rochester friend when the Prof. {Amos Eaton} are published. Perhaps you will act prudently to break the shock by sounding a premonitory alarm. He is a good fellow indeed, & I greatly

regret having hurt his feelings. When you print {Carex} emonsii quote {Chester} Dewy mss. or he may think he has reason to complain of us. but after what I have said about {Carex} shortii. {Carex} oxylepis is very well though I should not have complained of {Carex} acuminata. How came I to make that mis= =take about the Rocky Mountains {Carex} strata? You must be right, if you found other specimens under that name from the same locality. I am a little surprised at what you say about {Carex} nigromarginata & yet it appears to me that Dewey somewhere says it has pubescent fruit. That is a good bit about {Carex} novae angliae, it must be the same as {Carex} collecta. Now that you point it out I wonder we did not see it before. By the way I have not seen a scholar whom I can trust to decide respecting the proper orthogaphy of novae angliae — but I think we may safely drop the 1st vowel, as is done in {Aspidium} noveboracense ___ The proof sheet was returned yesterday. I did not get it till Saturday morning & I was doubtful about the propriety of dispatching it by the Sabbath mail. Shall I direct letters &c. to No 30 — or to the Lyceum? I made some corrections — but left several alterations for your decision.

As to the bill of freight for the Russian parcels, I fear it was neglected — but my receipts will show & I will make all right on my return. How strange that Dr. Graham's parcel should have been so long on the way. It is welcome, however, even at this late day. With our work we will keep — the copy of Wight & Arrnot's Flora I will present to {Charles} Pickering. You must have seen Mr. {Benjamin Daniel} Greene by this time. Did he say any thing about the Texan plants which I requested him to spare for me? Your may safely lend {William} Darlington {Christian Friedrich} Lessing's work. He has very few Compositae which will fall into new genera — except the Carices Asters — & these have been worked up by {William Jackson} Hooker in {Flora boreali-americana}. Tell Crandall to gather 40 {specimens} of the Caltha flabellifolia for me. I will give him other plants for them. So then you have floundered out of the bog we

got into in hunting hunting for a name wherewith to borrow the Carex washingtonia You say that all {Joseph} Barratts fine specimens of the plant have 2 stigmas. The op. from Bigelow (my original Carex bigelowii) I know had but two, but I thought some of the others (though I did not look sharply) had three. The come back again then to Carex saxatilis! — — But what tale is it that is appended to Carex virginiana I mistake not) one of the specimens, but it cannot be the same as the White Hills plant, & besides no one can identify the original species by the published character. It is one of Lamarck's I think. In noticing Carex aris= tata R. Br. remember what Dewey (in lit.?) says about it, that it a variety of — — (I forget the species at this moment) which he described in his {Caricography}.

Why do you decline the offer I made you respecting the Flora? I know it was little that I offered, but I only wished you to devote so much of your time as you could conveniently spare, to the work. Perhaps you think I cannot spare even so much money the at year. I can, perhaps, give up more than this without inconveniance, as you will easily see when you consider that I am not but a quarter salary or so behind hand, & in a year from this time (with ordinary success) I shall be not only out of debt, but have a pretty handsome surplus. If you are willing to take the chance of [loss] at a share of the profits of the Flora. I will agree, cheerfully, to any thing you may propose. I think I will publish on my own account — I mean that I do but whether it will be expedient to sell the copy right unless a good price is offered.— We will talk about all the details when we meet. Of course I shall be happy to make due acknowledgement of the aid you afford me — not only in general matters, but in indicating several of the families for which you are responsible. Further it will be well for you to write several pretty full monographs of orders that will be embraced in the 1st vol. — Then you can be quoted for your species, & you will stand out in bolder relief than if it is merely stated in the

PS. Mrs. T. will, I hope, be well enough to write to day. We took our first ride on horseback yestersday. She may bring her letter with her. How I regret that I cannot go after the Eupatorium? I fear we shall miss it again. I shall remember Poa obtusa. Don't you want any other pine grass or Cyp. Do try & get out No. 3 next autum.