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Correspondence of Charles Mohr and G. W. Clinton |
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The
Correspondence of Charles
(Carl) Theodore Mohr (1824‑1901) and George
William Clinton (1807‑1885) 1868 Vol.5 no. 56 [B 173] Mobile January 21st, 1868 My dear Sir! Your kind letter of 4th December did come duly to hand;
I can well excuse the delay in replying to my last, knowing fully
by my own experience hard after those matter we love best, have to give a way
before the demands of a laborious calling and the severer dutys of an active
live. In the same degree as it has been difficult to snatch the few moments,
devoted to your correspondence with me, from the pressing demands upon your
time, the will be appreciated by me. [omnia sic] I have been busy during the evenings of the past week to
make up a set of duplicates for you, from my herbarium, wich [sic] I hope you
will find of interest. I have yet to
add the Orchideae, Xerideae, Cypereae & Gramineae. The later families
particularly have gained some very interesting additions by an excursion,
wich I made in the first week of last July to the Bayou called
"fowliver[??]" wich in due direction from east to west separates
Island BonSecour [?] from the main land. It west in (about 10 miles opposite
Fort Morgan; I found many rare and interesting Plants as v. Sarrasenea Drummondii,
Sabbatia corymbosa, macrophylla, Melanthium virginicum, Asclepias paupercula,
A...tis longifolia et.ct. beside many Glumaceous plants, of all of wich you
will find good specimens in the collection I send. Our friend Mr. Lesquereux is quite delighted by the results
of the examination of my collection of mosses from this vicinity. He arrived
as he says at splendid and startling discoverys wich reveal some strange
unexpected facts in regard to the distribution of mosses on this continent. He will publish his report upon that
subject as soon as time will allow, in the annals of the Philada. Academy. I
hope to get through with my selections for you by the first of next month,
and if not directed otherwise I will send you the package for Express.
Particularly acceptable to me are the more rare and obscure as well as the
more frequent species of the generas of numerous species, v. Aster, Solidago,
of the Chenopodiaceae Atriplic[ium?], Salix, Quercus, Cyperus, Rhynchospora
and particularly of Graminea. Also of Cryptogamia plants particularly
Hepatica, of Filices and Musci, of N. Americ. I have thanks to the kindness
of Mr. Lesquereux & others a pretty full collection. If you take a
interest in a nearer acquaintance with our south. flora it will be always
great pleasure to me to send you in future specimens of all I might collect
in future, and to interchange views and ideas as the suggest themselves by
the investigation of those plants wich present doubts & difficultys. I
will send a fine specimen of the ... & the Marsilea; Salvinia natans and
Philalaria [?] I have only european specimens, if possible I will send you
some of it; I really can not recollect at this moment if I have any
duplicates or not. Hoping to hear from you soon again I remain truly and
respectfully Yours Chas. Mohr P.S. I just wrote on for Grays latest edition. Recd.
Jan. 27 ["Salvinia
natans, L., was said by Pursh to grow floating on the surface of small lakes
in Western New York, and has more recently been said to occur in
Missouri," Gray's 6th. p. 701, apparently not yet verified. Sarracenia
drummondii Croom is presently S. leucophylla Raf.] [Between
this letter and the next, Leo Lesquereux wrote to George Clinton the
following lines: March 24th [18]68: "Carl
Mohr is an excellent man and fine collector: though not very clean and
careful in specimens making. He wrote me that he had sent a package to you.
He may come this way in the summer time. Could we not meet once here. Have
you never anything to do in Ohio and if you were coming this way would you
accept the hospitality of your old deaf friend who could not do much to make
you pleased but would do his best to have you comfortable at least. When
living in Swizerland, it was one of my greatest enjoyments to have every year
quite a company of my botanical friends stopping at my house. It was small as
is my own now. There was Schimper and Schaerer and Desmazieres and many
others unknown to you and we had splendid excursions among our mountains. How
pleasant it is to remember when one is old. If hope is eternal in the human
breast, remembrance is still more strongly anchored there and more pleasant
still at least after fifty years of age when beyond eternity we have not much
left to be hopefull for. It is the good time to be thankfull at
least." ] [Another
note to Clinton from Lesquereux reads: April 27th [18]68: "Mohr
writes me from Mobile a very long letter of which there is a paragraph which
reads as follows "I received to day (Date April 12th) a package of
plants from Juge Clinton, which in interest and the beauty of the specimens
excells anything I have ever seen. I find myself richly rewarded indeed and
have to be thankful to you for it too as it is through your kind interference
that my corresponding with Mr. Clinton was brought about."] Vol.5 no. 156 [B 72] Mobile July 10th 1868 My dear Sir! Having received no news from you since my last lines of
April 18th or 20th, in wich I shortly acknowleg'd thankfully the receipt of
your package of plants, I infer that the same have never reached you; as such
failures in mail matters are rather of frequent occurrence. I come by the
present again to tender to you my best thanks, than really as regards the
beauty of the carefully prepared specimens as well as the large number of
most interesting and to me new species of our northern Flora. I never did
receive a package wich did give me more pleasure, than yours. I am just busy
now to incorporate your plants with others with my herbarium of the north
Amer. flora and during the progress of these operations I have frequent
occasions for delight caused by the interesting objects of your collection. I
feel deeply how poorly a great many of the specimens are, wich I did send
you. A fact only excusable by the circumstances that by your particular
request I did send authentic specimens collected by a race of zealous
botanists of the south, now almost extinct. I was not able since 11 years to get up a correspondence
or exchange with a botanist within the borders of the southern states. In
consequence I can offer only that what I can collected within my limited
neighbourhood, or on a occasional hurried business trip in the interior of
Ala. Your last letter found my health
greatly impaired; by the advise of my physician I made a short stay in the
country to recruit my health and gain strength. I did spend a couple of weeks
at and on a plantation 14 miles from Montgomery. I found several very
interesting plants, it being the first time that I spent some time in that
region in the vernal season. I shall be happy to send you at the close of the
season a full set of all the specimens collected by me during the same. I
have only to regret that the number of the same will be much smaller as
anticipated, as there is scarcly any time allocated to me for excursions. I
am afraid the summer will pass over, without my projected exploration of the
flora of the Gulf shore and Gulf Islands as [e.g.?] Dauphin island [et cet.?]
wich I have much at heart, since many years. The specimens wich as indicated by your labels have been
prepared by the lamented Mr. Joseph [S. Lewis?], show the love wich this
unfortunate gentleman had for the science, it is the loss of such a one
deeply to be deplored. I certainly shall keep his specimens as mementos of
his devotion and zeal in the cause of botanical science. ‑ The idea to
visit the north had to give away to the more necessary demands of my
business; and so again I have to defer the pleasure to spend a happy week
with our amiable friend Mr. Lesquereux for another year, and it would give me
great pleasure if I could be so happy to make your personal acquaintance. I found here plentifully the Isoetes florida
[sp.?] of wich I will get some nice specimens for you. I remain most respectfuly Yours Chas. Mohr G. W. Clinton Esqu. Recd July 18 [A
Joseph S. Lewis does not occur in the Index Herbariorum Collectors series.
The City of Mobile sits on the northwestern shore of Mobile Bay. The mouth of
Mobile Bay opens southward into the Gulf of Mexico. All along and parallel to
the Gulf coast here occur linear barrier islands. The Intracoastal Waterway
is the protected watercourse between these islands and the mainland. The
mouth of Mobile Bay is protected by barrier islands on the east and west.
Dauphin Island is the western island on the eastern tip of which is Fort
Gaines. The western tip of the barrier island facing it across the mouth
supports Fort Morgan. Entrance to the Bay is guarded by both forts ‑ a
formidible obstacle in the taking of Mobile Bay by the Union naval commander
David Glasgow Farragut during the Civil War. Mobile Bay was the chief source
of Confederate blockade‑running out of the Gulf of Mexico. In addition
to the two forts, Mobile Bay was defended by a line of mines, called
torpedoes. In Farragut's successful engagement with the Confederate navy in
1864 he issued the famous cry "Damn the torpedoes" and full speed
ahead.]
Mobile Bay (from AAA Road Atlas for 1987) |
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