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

short of $100, but it will last as long as the College stands.

I wished to be informed whether there is any prospect of Jäger {Benedict Jaeger} leaving the Institution. (I wish we could find a place for my friend Dr. Gray in the College. He is an uncommonly fine fellow & will make a great noise in the scientific world one of these days. It is good policy for the College to secure the services & affections of young men of talent, & let them grow up with the institution. How would it do for Gray to be a Tutor or assistant in Chemistry?.) Dr. Maclean cannot have desire now to be an assistant. It would injure him as a practition= =er very much & prevent him from taking a high stand in his profession. Besides he is not exactly calculated for the situation. (If the college prospers & the classes increase, and assistant will be needed in my department. Gray has a capital {herbarium} & collection of minerals. He understands most of the branches of Natural History well & in Botany he has few superior. You know that he is my {assistant} in {Chemistry} — but I cannot afford to retain him with my present income.)

I had a letter from Johnny Vaughn yesterday. The old man wishes me to make some remarks on Nuttalls

botanical paper for Dr. {Charles Wilkins} Short of Kentucky, one of the subscribers of the Am Phil. Trans.

I propose making a visit to Princeton shortly so you must brush up your jimcracks & prepare for an inspection. Why have none of the Princtoni= ans been here this winter? Will you not come soon?

I have no time to write more, though I have much to say. Write soon & believe me yours truly

John Torrey

Prof. Jos. {Joseph} Henry. F.A.P.S ?

10 Prof. J. {Joseph} Henry Princeton New Jersey

[postmark] NEW-YORK FEB 13

Dr Torrey Feby 18th 1835

Princeton, May 29th 1835.

My dear friend

I have not been able till now, to redeem the promise I made you on our parting, that I would write very soon. The day I arrived here I was taken with a pretty high fever & diarrhea. The former left me the next day, but the latter is still unsubdued. I hope, however, to be better after taking some medicine this even= =ing. Yesterday I gave my first lecture — but I have not felt strong enough to hold forth today & to make besides the preparation for the lecture.

The country looks pleasant indeed. I saw some good plants as we passed along the road — but I have not yet been able to go out & collect a single specimen. It is tantalizing to one to see the woods so near & not be able to dash down to them. Have you been out since I left? I wish much to have you see some of our rarer plants in situ for we really have a very rich though rather scattered flora.

I suppose that you are as busy as ever in the study. I should be delighted to look in upon you if it were only for an hour, but that pleasure I must forego for one week — then (D.V.) I hope to spend two or three days at my own happy home.

You are probably preparing for your journey. Have you been able to get all your grass books glued? If you will put up some sets of specimens & their labels, I will attend to the gluing for you. Mrs. T. informs me that the long expected box of Florida plants has arrived! It will be a choice study for me if I live to return.

Did you urge Chilton to send the trough &c? He is so slow that he almost exhausts my patience. Perhaps I shall get the apparatus by the time the course is half through! ___ I am not happy here without my family — but I could bear the separation better were I well enough to work hard & were my quarters more agreeable. This tavern has degenerated from a Temperance House to a raw shop — The company that [re?ts] to it & the boarders are rather low. There is much drinking, smoking, & carousing within its walls & I long to be in a more quiet place. ___ The senior class this year is said to be a good one. It numbers about 60. We have 215 students on the ground, & there will probably be five more here soon. This is well.

Saturday morning — I hope I shall soon be strong again — for any disease has subsided & my appetite is good this morning. I find great difficulty in obtaining a good boarding house for my family. It is

very doubtfull whether they will be contented to remain long in any place that I may find for them.

I have looked over Lindley's "Ladies Botany" & think it will do very well to reprint in this country — if some twenty or thirty pages of new matter & about three more plates are added to the work. It would be no great labour to prepare an American edition, & I may, this summer write nearly what may be necessary to fit the work for the Yankees, & you can dish it up if you will take it off my hands. ___ You have a more serious task before you — but it will be quite within your power to finish it in three months & per= =haps in a shorter time. However, to write a regular tome from the preface to FINIS; — including 300 or 400 pages — is not mere play & cannot be done in so short a time as some people imagine — & we, too, may have miscalculated.

I have written a rig-ma-role letter — but I have not been in a mood to write any other since I came here — Take it such as it is & believe me Yours in the best of bonds

John Torrey