From Asa Gray   11 December 1874

My Dear Darwin,

I must be owing you an answer to more than one note, and an apology for being able to do nothing, as I fear, to help you as to either Pinguicula or Utricularia—tho. I tried, by addressing correspondents.¹

I should have thought that I had appealed to Mrs. Treat of New Jersey, about Utricularia, but I now find that she has taken up Utricularia, as she says, out of her own head.² I suppose she is fairly to be relied on—is certainly trustworthy, and very enthusiastic.

The best good wishes for Xmas & New Year to you and yours.—and much good work may you get off this coming year, & later, and pray bring out your Drosera & Dionæa paper.³ My wife⁴ adds affectionate regards. It would do her good to have one of those hearty laughs with you. But, alas, we are indeed sad, inexpressibly grieved & bleeding at heart for poor dear Hooker in his bereavement.⁵

You like to glance at little things I throw off, now & then—especially when, as generally happens, your name gets lugged in. I send—through Hooker, a piece of blurred newspaper sheet, the agricultural side of N. Y. Tribune, in which I have popularly discussed the duration of varieties.⁶ It would please me to think you thought it worth reading through.

Affectionately Yours | Asa Gray