409

presented your kind letter.

No doubt I shall learn
a great deal this year, but there is no
[information?] either about the teachers or the
surroundings. I do not think there are many
scientists who have your knack of making
me feel an immediate interest and enthusiasm.
The men here certainly [?] it.

There is absolutely no Botanical
library to speak of. They have about
two-hundred volumes – Sachs, [?], Berkeley,
Gray and many old D[?] who wrote
voluminously about "nothing of which nothing
was the whole result." There is only one special
book among the nubmers & that is Grays Manual.

The [your?] work "Botany" of the
"American Science Series, Henry Holt & Co." enjoys
the distinction of being by far the
most battered and dirty book in [?] alcove.
It is evidently consulted more than any
other three books put together.

Yesterday and Saturday before