Tell father I am very glad he has brought home the remainder of those boxes from Utica. The burning down of one of the buildings of the gymnasium has broken up that school entirely, and it probably will not be revived. I knew Mr. Bartlett would fail soon, and that accident has only hastened the time a little. He has been insolvent for some time. There was a very severe fire within a few rods of us last week; five or six dwelling-houses and other buildings were burned to the ground. Although it was so near us we were sitting at tea entirely unconcerned. Everything is done by the fire companies, and people who crowd about fires are only in the way, without doing any good.
Let me hear from you soon, and you will hear from me again in due season. The lectures in the Medical College will be finished in about three weeks, and then I shall be a little more at leisure.
DEAR FATHER,--I have been waiting for some time to see what my plans for the season would be, expecting as soon as that point was determined to write to you. All my arrangements were upset last fall, and the prospects for daily bread have been rather dark all winter--that is for the present; for the future they look as well as I could expect. It is probable now that I shall remain here during the summer; prosecuting the same studies and pursuits in which I am now engaged, unless something else turns up in the mean time....
Tell mother I have for her a copy of Barnes’s “Notes of the Gospels,” but I want to read it myself before I send it up. Perhaps I can’t spare it until I come up. I think you will all be very much pleased with it. I wish I could also send you his “Notes on the Acts and Romans.” Please ask Mr. Rogers, or any of your merchants when they come to New York this spring, to drop a line in the post-office for me, that I may take the opportunity of sending home by them. I wish I could come up this spring, but I see that I shall not be able. Do you take a religious newspaper? Please write to me soon. May the Lord prosper you and keep you all.
DEAR SIR,--Your kind letter of December 11, with the parcel of books you were so good as to send me, were in due time received, for both of which I beg you to accept my thanks. Perhaps you will do me the favor to accept a copy of the second part of the “North American Gramineæ and Cyperaceæ,” being a continuation of my attempt to illustrate our species of these families, the plan of which, I am gratified to learn, meets your approbation. I inclose in the same parcel the loose sheets of an unpublished portion of the third volume of the “Annals of the New York Lyceum of Natural History,” comprising an attempt at a monography of the genus Rhynchospora. A more perfect copy, with a copy of the engraving, now in the hands of the artist, will be transmitted to you by the earliest opportunity. I also send a little parcel of mosses, nearly all of which were collected in the interior of the State of New York. May I ask you to look them over at as early an opportunity as may suit your convenience, and to return to me the result of your determinations. I do not venture to think that you will find among them anything of especial interest. I very much regret that I am at the present moment unable to forward to you a half a dozen copies of the work of “Gramineæ and Cyperaceæ,” the number you so kindly offer to take charge of. A few species are wanting to complete further suits of the first volume, but these I hope soon to obtain. Not to permit your kind offer to pass wholly unimproved, I hereby transmit to you three copies of vols. 1 and 2 which are at the disposal of any of your botanical friends who may desire to possess the work. If an additional number of copies should be needed they can in a very short time be furnished. With high respect, I remain, dear sir,