13 Jan 1831 [1] (seq. 1)

New York. Jany. 13th 1831.

Dear Sir,

A few days since I found lying on the table in
my laboratory your acceptable letter of the 1st init., together
with a parcel of interesting plants — for which be pleased to
accept my thanks. Being confined to-day by an indis=
=position which prevents me from my duties at the medical college
but {which} does not incapacitate me altogether from light mental occu=
=pation, I have amused myself by looking over your specimens.
The cryptogamia I must leave for examination in the spring
but I think you have determined most of them correctly.

The few {which} you name Aspidm. filix-fem. {Aspidium filix-femina}, is what I
have always
called {Aspidium} asplenoides. It is probably A. filix-fem. of Pursh — & also the A.
{Aspidium} augustum of Michaux.

{Aspidium} cristatum of your parcel appears to be exactly what Dr. Hooker, in the
Edin{burgh}
Journal of Science for Feby. 1822, has edited {Aspidium} goldianum after Mr.
{John} Goldie,
a Scotch botanist who visited this country some years ago. {William Jackson} Hooker &
{Robert Kaye} Greville have given
a fine figure of it in the splendid Icones filicum ... It must be
the plant called {Aspidium} filix-mas by Pursh but a distinct species from
the European fern so called.
{Aspidium} dilatatum seems to be identical with {Aspidium} intermedium
Mitella cordifolia agrees exactly with what I have described under
this name & which I have suspected to be the same as {Mitella} nuda