Transcription:
ARNOLD ARBORETUM, HARVARD UNIVERSITY. Jamaica Plain, Mass., February 23, 1898. My dear Muir: I am pegging away very
constantly at The Silva with very little enjoyment to myself but with the hope that the job will be off my hands by the end
of this year. Last week I went to Ottawa, passed a day there talking to explorers who spend their summers in Labrador and
the valley of the lower Mackenzie River and such other out-of-the-way parts of the world. The Canadian winter with its cold
dry snow and brilliant sunshine I found delightful. Next month I must go to Florida to look for one or two troublesome Palm
trees which have heretofore escaped me and I hope that Canby will go with me. I have written to Miss Eastwood that I must
have the flowers of Abies magnifica this year and that, if necessary, she could confer with you as to the best way of getting
them. I do not suppose that people who are interested in California like you and Miss Eastwood are going to consent to the
appearance of a plate representing Abies magnifica without the flowers and I count on getting them somehow or other. If Miss
Eastwood cannot go, and there is no one nearer than San Francisco who knows enough about trees to know what the flowers of
an Abies look like, I wish you would find some young man and send him into the mountains to get this material. I will gladly
pay his ex- 02404