(seq. 5)

Pineville, October 25th 1814

Dear Sir,

I was obliged by the ill health of myself & family to
spread the sickly season in the upper country, but my
opportunity for herborizing was very limited. We did not
arrive in the mountainous country until the 7th of Sept
& left it a month after, consequently I could find but
few plants in bloom. Whether I have been industri-
ous you can decide when you inspect my specimens.
They were sent to Charleston this morning directed to
the care of Mr. J[io?]. White factor.

I had promsed myself some gratifica-
tion from meeting with persons engaged in botanical pur
=suits but was in a great measure disappointed. My route
interested Mr. Leconte's but we did not meet. I had however
the pleasure of meeting & spending a few hours with Messrs
Van Vleck & Schweinitz two Moravian clergymen. The for
=mer is a correspondent of Dr. Muhlenberg. From habit
he has become fond of botany & has paid considerable atten
=tion to some of its departments. He shewed me in a liv=
ing state the Talinum with cylindrical fleshy leaves. It
grows in the upper parts of N.C on bare rocks. He also
had a very uncommon Ranunculus with long linear
leaves — a native. The latter gentleman has not been
longer than 18 months in this country. He informed me that
he was intimate with Persoon & assisted him by paintings &
engravings in a work on the Fungi. I saw the pain=
tings & a copy of the engravings. He observed that he was
very much struck with the great similarity between the
Fungi of Europe & of the U.S. & that altho' he could now &
then pick up a new species yet it could easily be
referred to a described genus. The globular & sometimes
kidney shaped fugus of our cedars he observed was an
exception.

He refers our Tuckahoe or subterranean tubes
to a genus of Persoons which sounds like Scleroderma
tho' this is I believe not the name.