To David Thomas Ansted 3 January 1842

My dear Ansted,

If Jukes wishes to be really useful in Botany, he must take a few practical lessons in drying plants from some botanist. Merely writing to him will do no good, as I have experienced on more occasions than one. When he knows how to dry let him collect good specimens of every thing he can lay his hands upon in flower & fruit - & carefully label the localities of each. This is really the sum total of my advice to all the uninitiated. A week's practice under the superintendence of Lindley, Dr Lemann, Bennett, or any London Botanist will convert him into a Good Herbalist - & all the rest must be left till he returns & consigns his [illeg.] to some one more diligent & more capable of making use of them than I & most other Botanists in England. I hardly know anyone at the present moment who would undertake their descriptions unless it were Arnott, the rejected of Glasgow - or Bentham - other people are either too old, or have their hands full of a variety of employment. On the Continent he would find plenty of men, where a man can have his time to himself for one employment only - no doubt his plants would be very interesting, & I should be very glad of a share for our Herbarium - where they may repose for general use & reference in the year 2573

Ever Yrs truly

J. S. Henslow