FLORIAN - The Most Traveled Man on Earth

<strong>The</strong>y think only of the pleasures of society, and have no time for those who have a taste
for cultivating their flowers, shrubs and fruit trees. Do you remember when we used to
go cut asparagus at La Barre, and put them in my handkerchief? You have no idea of the
happiness it gives me to recall such little pleasures. It seems to me that it is such deeply
felt shared little things that assure love for the rest of life. When together we watched the
sunset and the last rays reflected in the damp sands of the big beach, and without saying a
word, we clasped hands? When we would go sit down in the woods by the little beach,
and together read the translation of that English work on the Picturesque? Do you
remember all that? As for me, I will never forget it, and I would not take mountains of
gold for the memory. Would that my daughters have such simple tastes, so easy to
satisfy, and find husbands who possess them as well, and share their pleasures!
With you and my children I would not need but a little corner of earth in this country, not
very close to the city, but on the higher ground, 40 leagues farther out. <strong>The</strong>re are some
charming places on the river.
Don’t forget to bring with you all the onions, seeds, and roots possible, and all
imaginable plants, flowers, shrubs, even those that in England only grow in hothouses.
Here everything will grow right in the ground. If you could bring geranium plants they
would last here all year, as would China roses, white and dark red, like we used to have at
the Assembly House near the door and the window of the parlor. I am sure they would
always be in bloom in this country. <strong>The</strong> nurserymen have a way of packing [p 3] trees
and flowers in baskets so that they can cross the ocean. Try to bring chestnuts, hazelnuts,
walnuts and fresh almonds. You can get the latter from almond trees that they use in
England as ornamentals. Also bring Indian chestnuts and other seeds of large trees, a lot
of seeds of melons (Larch), which are unknown here. In sum, bring everything, because
everything is valuable in a country where they neglect everything.
If some ship comes here directly, you must send me _______, and then bring with you as
much more whether you come _____ or New York. Also bring a good supply of ruled
paper for copying music, a _______ des wique and several copper pens with 4 teeth,
which are expressly made for ruling paper. That paper here costs six English pence per
page. Also plenty of music to sell. I have already told you that you can procure it very
cheaply at some shops, especially in the passage of the Great Turn Style [Turnstile?,
England] which goes from Holborn in Lincoln Inn Fields.
I repeat, in regard to flowers, [bring] plenty of Crocus of all colors, Snowdrops, iris,
Jacobea and Guernsey lilies, poppies, Oriental poppy, Chinese pinks, hyacinths, ______,
etc. But above all, rare plants and shrubs and hothouse plants because here they are not
acquainted at all with those which in England are called American shrubs, and you could
make plenty of money every year by providing onions, roots and seeds, when the public
sees the flowers and fruits in our garden. Some sort of nursery would succeed here very
well. Also bring plenty of alfalfa seeds, large _______ (Burnet grass), and sainfoin –1 or
2 bushels of each. [Margin note:] Berries of mountain ash [?], seeds of the little apples
(Siberian crabs) etc. [End margin note]
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