Leipzig
24th Dbr.
My dear Sir!
The packet of plants and the letter which you kindly forwarded to me the 22d Novbr. 1827 came not to my hands till the 10th of Octbr. 1828. You have received in the meantime my letter by Prof Friedlaender who has, I am glad to hear found you in good health. I am very much obliged to you for the friendly reception you gave to the professor, and also for the rich collection of plants, many of which were very agreeable to me. By this I send you some plants, the most of which have been collected in Saxony according to the joined tickets. Colditz is a small town 4 1/2 german miles from Leipzig, the native place of my husband & situated close to the Mulde-river in one of the most beautiful parts of Saxony. Schmoelen which likewise occurs frequently on the tickets is a country seat belonging to a friend of mine, also situated at the Mulde but 3 miles lower down towards its disemboguing into the Elbe.
Besides these plants you received 50 from Hungaria, all that at present were at my disposition, at the price of 9 sh. as soon as I get the others, I shall take care to sent these to you. - Then 136 North-American plants, the only ones that are left, at £2.6d & 65 from Cuba at £1.9sh summa £3 sh.18 6d, which I ask you to pay to my cousin Mr. Anthony Daehne (adr. Messrs Lovegrove & Leather, No.2 Turnwheel Lane, Cannon Str. London), requesting him, to forward them to me at a proper opportunity.
Should you be desirous of purchasing exotic plants I sometimes would be able to procure you them, because there offers itself now & then an opportunity to buy collections of this kind, usually at the price of £1 sh.16 to £2 for hundred specimens; European plants (Swiss, France, Russian etc) are cheaper. A gardener of one of our richest botanical establishments lately offered to me two collections of dried cultivated plants, the one consisting of 1020-30 specimens at the price of 8sh. for each hundred; the other of about 800 spec. Should you be disposed to buy one of these collections, I ask you to let me soon know it.
As to my going to the West-Indies I cannot guess, what may have given rise to such a mistake, since it never came into my mind to do so.
Have the kindness to present my best compliments and thanks to Prof. Whewel for his kind remembering me and for the books he sent me by Prof Friedlaender. I communicated his paper on the density of the earth to Prof Drobisch who, I believe, first wrote on this subject theoretically & who gave a report of Prof Whewels and his companions experiments in our Society for natural history; we were wondering at the perseverance & pain these gentlemen took for the improvement of science.
I am very much rejoiced by the information of your having had a very good audience, when you gave your first course of lectures, and I think it will be so the more and more in futurity.
Believe me Sir
Most sincerely yours
Justus Radius
List of plants of which I would be obliged to have duplicates
2nd column
Please cite as “HENSLOW-1022,” in Ɛpsilon: The Correspondence of John Stevens Henslow accessed on 21 September 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/henslow/letters/letters_1022