474

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 absorbent
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 pasteboard. Packages
weighing less than four pounds can be sent by mail
sat the rate of one cent per ounce. Write the name of the
sender on the outside. In the letter accompanying the
specimens state where collected, the date, and any other
particulars of the plant, whether reputed poisonous, pestiferous,
medicinal, or useful.

U. S. Department of Agriculture,
Division of Botany,
Washington, D. C., Sept 29th 1886.

Prof. C E Bessey.
My dear Sir

Your letter of the 23d inst. has been duly
received. it is perhaps impossible to tell accurately
what the grass which you send is without flowers.
I have seen running stolon of [Panicura obtusium?] ten
feet long, but that compares poorly by the side of such
as yours 51 feet long. Prof Scribner when in Montana
says that he saw stolons of [Phragmitus communis?] that
were thirty feet long, and he thinks yours are of the same
kind. I think it to be very probable that this is the grass
I spent several weeks this summer investigating the grasses of the arid
plains west of the 100th meridian, but saw nothing like
the stolons sent by you.

Truly Yours
Geo. Vasey