(seq. 4)

[verso page]
I have run over your catalogue hastily & believe
I can send you about 35 of the plants enumerated.
Many of them are strangers to my botanical range.
Michaux or his editors are frequently in error as it res-
pects the habitat of particular plants. My 4 earlier
have been in a great measure confined to "flat
pine barrens" from which circumstanceI hope I
may be the more serviceable to you.

It appears to me that our Orchideae
want generic reformation. The genera are
not well defined & Swartz's genus Cymbidium
makes "confusion more confounded."

Be assured, my dear Sir, no man can
more earnestly wish for the advancetment of
Nat. history in all its branches than I do, & yet
professional avocations are so urgent & necessa-
ry that my inclination must not always pre-
dominate. Therefore the fruits of my desultory ex-
ertions I consign most willingly to you. Don't think
Sir of speaking in doubtful terms of the comple
=tion of your work. Do all you can to wipe from
the chartacter of Carolina the imputation of scientific
& literary apathy.

Pursue the plan you have commenced
of designating all the species of Michaux & Walter
you have not seen & which you suspect
grow in my range. I shall mark in Mich-
aux those put in requisition now & will send on
according to my ability.

I could send you now many peren=
nial, fibrous & bulbus roots which would grow
the next spring could I ascertain that you
have them not already.

[recto page]
Have you discovered as I understand a bush
which answers well the purposes of hedging? Does your
Mussaenda or Pincknega possess any celebrity simi-
lar to the other species of Cinchona in a medical sense
Is your olea known in any domestic way?

In which state of forwardness, may I venture
to ask, is your work? How .Wont you wish now
to incorporate the physiological &c &c observa-
tions I could send.

Is it really time that the Croton cas=
carilla (pungent & aromatic) & the Convolvul. [Convolvulus]
galappa, grow in Georgia?

Excuse my dear Sir, the hasty
scrawl for which I have delayed the [?]
almost too long.

I am, Dear Sir,
with great respect
Yours
J Macbride