My Dear Mr. Darwin

I had hoped to see you during this fortnight, but it has been completely filled by pressing work here. Hooker could not spare me on Monday; and I was sure that one foreigner was enough for you to see and talk with in one day, and so I spared you from a sense of duty as well as of necessity.²

We are off tomorrow morning, for 3 or 4 months. 〈We〉 shall then settle at Kew.

Mrs. Darwin and yourself will be glad to know that Mrs. Gray³ bore the voyage very well, and is wonderfully recruited since.

I long to see your Circumnutating book, and must write one, if not two notices of it in U.S. Perhaps you could get it over to me—to Decaisne’s care, at the Jardin des Plantes, as soon as it is out.⁴

Sincerely Yours | Asa Gray