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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) 1879 Vol. 12 no. 87 [K 41] Dear friend! Many thanks for your kind and esteemed letter of 20th of
Debr.; Your kind words are a great encouragement and comfort to; and I will
ever recall them, when those moments of despondency loom up, wich ever and
anon are encountered in my struggle through life. ‑ If I am late in tendering you by this my best and sincere
wishes to the commencement of a new year, I hope you will regard the same as
not less warm and heartfelt; After the long series of years devoted to the
service of Your state and the welfare of its citizens, I hope you will enjoy
many more to come free from the arduous labors and I can well imagine after
harrowing cares connected with the discharge of the duties of your exalted
office, in sweet happiness, and to the joy of all who are connected with You
by the affections of love and the ties of friendship. The old year closed rather gloomy for many of us here;
and every one has to take his share in the generally prevailing depression of
business. However light we of this place have been touched by the late
epidemic, we never the less are as heavy affected as places more severly
stricken from its affects upon trade and prosperity. After a period of
absolute stagnancy, caused by the absence of a very large part (and the most
substantial) of our people, ..s from August to December combined with the
quarantine, the season of our trade upon which the whole population has to
depend for the rest of the year has been cut unusually short, and great part
of the trade regarded as tributary to this place been diverted to other
channels. But we have cause to be deeply grateful, and to find my
beloved ones, happily around me again at Christmass to enjoy the evening I
found the fondest of my desires and wishes gratified. By the end of this week I hope to be able to send you a
little package of some rare and intresting plants I collected in the early
part of the season on our sea coast; I had a chance to make without much loss
of time 2 trips to the islands ...ting our coast and in the few short hours I
could ramble over the pin..ed plains, sandy downs and through brackish
marshes and lagoons I felt happy, in spite of a broiling July sun. I found
there that new Panicum littorale in abundance, which I discovered last summer
a year ago on our Hoping to have the pleasure to receive your kind
messages during this ensuing year I remain very truly your sincere friend Chas Mohr. [no date of receipt] [Note
that there is a reference to Mohr in a letter sent to Clinton from E. S.
Miller of Wading River, New York on Jan. 18, 1879: "I
have all of Curtiss 2 casic.s [?] and am to have the third, have many of
Garbers plants, all of Pringles, and have the promise of a set from Chas.
Mohr, Vol. 12 no. 110 [K 13] A few days ago I had the pleasure to send to you a small
package containing a few plants which might intrest you. ‑ I am sorry
that I could not add the desired Bromus Schraderi to it. I had not a single
specimen left of it; The spec'm of Panicum jumentorum is very poor; I shall
suply with good specimens during the course of the coming season. The Panicum littorale Vasey seen for the first time
& July 1879 [sic] on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay I recognized primo viso
as new, at least not described in our floras of Eastern U.St. I suggested the
name of P. littorale from its habitat when I did send it to Dr. Vasey, to
find out if the grass is known from the It was only in the beginning of this year that he
published a description of it in the Bot. Gazette (Jan. '79). The species
possesses a strongly marked character and it seems that Vasey encountered the
same difficulties as myself in assigning to it the proper place amongst the
numerous species of that difficult genus; In the inflorescence of the spiklet
and its forms it is similar to P. amerum, with whom it shares the same
habitat but the difference in habitus is so very great. This year I observed
for the first time that the grass in the later part of the season produces
long runners taken root from the short joints in the quicksand like the
Bermuda grass (Cynodra dactylon [?]) covered also with short upright or
depressed rigid leaves; So that that during the fall and winter season in
that state it easily taken for the later which disputes its ground in its
struggle to cover the dunes of quicksand with vegetation. This fall a friend brought me from the marshes of the
delta of Mobile river amongst a bucketful of aquatic plants a few withered
fruiting stems of a Cyperaceous plant, which by closer examination I found to
belong above all doubt to the Brazilean genus Oxycaricum perhaps specifically
different from the species I found in the Ridellian herbar. collected by Dr.
Carpenter in brackish lagoons in the delta of the I felt quite happy and satisfied at the close of the old
year, the state of my health having been beter than many a year before; The
cold spell coming over us shortly after the advent of the new, all my bright
hopes have been blasted; I got very sever attacks of my old rheumatic
complaints and I had to loose since many a day by disability to do any work;
this loss of precious time is what hurts me more than all the pains. ‑
I took the liberty to add a bottle of my The season of early spring is allready upon us, the
bluets and white Houstonias adorn with their delicate flowers the carpet of
fresh verdure that overspreads our plains. The student of Cryptogamic Botany
finds a rich and inviting field in the budding and development of the many
musci & hepatica, now mostly in their nuptials. My good wife is busy
early and late fixing up her flower garden, clearing up where the shrubbery
planted 18 years ago has grown to dense, excluding light and air from the
front of our dwelling. There was not a little opposition on my part, as I feel
sore to cut down a tree; But like in many other things the good wife was
right, and I rejoice in her improvements. Hoping to hear from you soon that
you with Mrs. Clinton enjoy good health I remain very truly yours C. Mohr. [no date of receipt] [Sereno
Watson (1826‑1892) was assistant curator at the Gray Herbarium, Harvard
starting in 1871. He was curator of the herbarium from 1874 until his death.
With W. H. Brewster and Asa Gray he published in two volumes, from 1876‑1880
the "Botany of California."] [End
of correspondence. ] |
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