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Wednesday, 14 Jan.'03. N ew O rleans, La. To Prof.John Muir, Martinez,Cal. My dear Sir: I send you many thanks for
the California paper which I received this morning,--surely it is a wonderful state and has everything in its borders to satisfy
and delight the heart of man Were I some 10, 15, or 20 years younger I think I might be tempted to pull up my stakes and even
bid farewell to the sea-islands of S. C. where my happiest days have been spent,--but I am too old now to move, for I am seventy-three,
and I am getting many ailments which will bear their fruit somd day It has been very cold during the past week or two, and
I find myself hugging the fire more or less all the time -- glad that I am not at the inhospitable North as it has been so
made by the demons of the Trust and all their deviltry. It looks a little as if it wants to snow, and I wish it would, for
a change, a condition which one hardly ever sees in beloved Carolina, at least in the soft, mild region from which I have
emigrated. Wish I was there now. I pine for my old Home I trust all are well in your home -- yourself, and Mrs. M. and the
young ladies. My little sick grandchild, Ruth St.Le is now perfectly well,and getting as fat as she need be. I am, my dear
Sir, Yours very truly, J. H. Mellichamp Does Quercus Texana grow in your region? There are many trees growing in the streets
and a day or two ago my little daughter Sophia picked up in the streets many acorns of the same, which I shall send to a kinsman
to be planted on James Island, S.C., opposite Charleston. They may do as well as the gonolobus which I sent him two or three
years ago, and which clambers all over his front piazza bearing foowers and foccicles better than in New Orlanes Does Thalia
dealbata grow in your regions? I used in the old days to find it abundantly next to our old place on James Island, S.C., growing
in old lagoons and in cypress land, and once during the war I collected specimens of the same which were very fine. If I go
next summer to my old haunts I shall collect a few specimens for your Herbarium, if you'd care to have them. The leaves at
best are fine -- flowers small rather, and violet colored, I think. The plant was once lost to botanists in South Carolina,
but Elliott refers to James Island, and again to Mr. Middleton's on the Ashley, where it was abundant.