Engelmann, George Jan. 28, 1867 [1] (seq. 255)

Return to Asa Gray

St Louis Jan 28 1867

Dear Gray

Not a word from you
ever so long, no acknowledgement
of my missives. Hope they arrived
in time and are satisfactory.
Here goes Sparganiums!

When I began to write it out,
I found great difficulty; wanted
to constitute at least 5 species,
but found it impossible to draw
satisfactory limits, so that I
had to go over the whole field
again, and reexamine every
specimen I have, maek drawings
etc; the result is before you.
Whether satisfactory? I should
have liked to keep the floating ones
separate, but can not conscious
iously do it; if they go as
distinct species, then all the varieties
of the polymorphus {Sparganium} simplex must

[last page]
here send a list of the species.
* 1. {Sagittaria} lancifolia Lin. (L. lancifolia Michx. L. falcata Pursh)
2. {Sagittaria} variabilis E. add var. pubescens
3. {Sagittaria} calycina E. Pennsylvania
4. {Sagittaria} heterophylla Pursh
5. {Sagittaria} graminea Michx ({Sagittaria} acutifolia Pursh)
6. S. {Sagittaria} simplex of Am Botanists
not of Pursh, whose specimen
and description are fictitious.
6. {Sagittaria} pusilla Nutt — a very good species
(if not too close to natans?)
but not allied to graminea)

But I hope to write it out in
time for you.

How far have you progressed?
Drop a line in acknowledge-
ment of my missives!

Yours truly
G. Engelmann

underscoring and punctuation of Mss
I leave, as usual, to you