Lewis David von Schweinitz
Published: 1820
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Correspondence from Louis David von Schweinitz to John Torrey, dated 1820-1832, discussing a multitude of plants (multi-page lists of species are frequently included with letters), particularly cryptogamia; his frequent bouts of ill health; and the activities of their friends and associates. His tone is nearly always warm, patient and fatherly (upon receiving news of Torrey's marriage: "I hope it is not too late to express my sincere congratulations upon your conversion from celibacy...")-- except when confronted with the antics of Rafinesque. "I wonder whether you have seen that most extraordinary & impertinent publication which Rafinesque has just issued-- on every possible subject under the title of Atlantic Journal, " he writes in 1832. "He is doubtless a man of intense knowledge-- as badly digested as may be & crack brained I am sure." Obsolete and unresolved plant names mentioned include Agnostus, Aira compressa, Aira pumila, Blitum maritimum, Carex subulata, Gerardia, Girardia auriculata, Gymnopodium, Hepatica, and Scirpus planifolius.