190

In sending specimens of plants for investigation, it is
desirable to have the leaves, flowers, and fruit; and in the
case of bulbous plants, the bulbs also. When they are sent
from a distance it is best to prepare the specimens by drying
them under pressure between folds of [?] paper, otherwise
the parts shrink and break so as to be hardly recognizable.
When the dried plants are sent they should be
protected from breakage in the mail by being [inclosed?]
between pieces of stiff [posterboard?]. Packages weighing less
than four pounds can be sent by mail at the rate of one cent
per usage. Write the name of the sender on the [?].
In the letter accompanying the specimens state where collected,
the date, and any other particulars of the plant,
whether reputed poisonous, [pestiforous?], medicinal, or useful.

Department of Agriculture,
Division of Botany,
Washington, D. C., Sept. 14th, 188 .

Prof. C. E. Bessey
Ames, Iowa.

My dear Sir

Your note of the 10th [inst?] is at hand.
In reply I would state that there is left only a broken
set of the Southern plants, between 2 and 3 hundred species
and only a small part of them distinctively Southern.

But I would inform you that my son has been doing
the past season, (or perhaps I should say present season
as he has not finished work yet) making a
collection of plant in Southern Cal. Arizona & N. Mexico.
The sets will comprise about 500 species and will be
sold at the ten dollars per hundred. I have seen specimens
of most of the species thus far collected and will say that
I consider it the most valuable collection that has been
made in that region in a long time. I believe you
would be gratified with the appearance of these plants.

If you wish for a set of them, I will add also