WCP456

[1]

Michigan Agricultural College^1,2

July 31st. 1887.

My dear Mitten³

Please forward enclosed to Annie⁴ at once, but if she is not with you, you can read it first, & get posted as to my last movements and intentions. I went out yesterday into some fine tracts of primeval forest here (with two botanists) one swampy forest where the ground was a dense carpet of sphagnum 1-2 ft. deep in which grew Sarracemias, yellow fringed orchids and Coptis trifoliata with hosts of other plants all rooting only in the moist sphagnum. I send you a small parcel of the Coptis, but I doubt if you can grow it as it requires shade, moisture, & the most perfect drainage, — but you can try. A friend here will supply seeds of most of the medieval plants ⁱⁿ your list. I enclose a few mosses gathered near the summits of the Rockies which are mostly in fruit.

Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]