To George Gordon   6 July [1861]¹

My dear Sir

I thought I should never have trespassed on your kindness again.— But pray listen to my case, pity me & help me if you can.— M^r Jamieson promised to send me Listera cordata, but writes that he cannot this year find it.² I then wrote to Prof. Dickie³ & I received yesterday some specimens sent in a wood little Box, consequently dry & crushed from being packed in compact moss & almost useless to me, but just sufficient to show me a certainly new point of structure. I wrote again to Prof. Dickie yesterday to beg him to send me more,⁴ but it is hopeless as he said after long search he could find only one little specimen with large buds (which are necessary for me).—

In the dead of the night it occurred to me that it might not be quite out of flower with you (if it grows near you) & I remembered your inexhaustible good nature, & the result is this note