All these things we will talk over together when I get well, and we have a quiet evening over a basket of Pears together. I must leave them now to tell you how I got here, and what sort of a place and people I have found. But I had almost forgotten that it is a favorite scheme with me, for you to live a year under the tropics, to learn all about the vegetation and cultivation; as soon as Cuba is acquired, I design a winter cottage there. To Cuba, perhaps, we can go together; if not, it will be easy to consult the Sandwich Islanders, and ascertain if they have any horticultural secrets to communicate.

Our little party of three cheerful invalids, had a world of difficulty to discover from any reliable source the best modern route to the "Virginia Springs." They have hitherto been so difficult of access, that I suspect your Rochester acquaintances would much more readily have been persuaded to go to Baden-Baden, among oar old enemies the Hessians, than to undertake a journey hitherward that involved so much inquiry and stage riding. Now all this is changed; we arrived here by rail and steamboat, with the exception of thirty-eight miles of staging, with very little fatigue. You at the North are so absorbed with your own sayings and doings, that you scarcely take a thought of the travelling facilities hereaway, except for special purposes. All inquiries proving fruitless, we determined to go on by easy journeys, and enquire as we proceeded; a very good plan, my dear friend, and one that I trust you will always remember. There was a slight idea in some minds that these enterprising Virginians were making a railroad from Richmond to Knoxville, Tennessee, but it was only when we arrived very near to the capital of the State, that we could ascertain positively that it was so far completed as to bring us nearly to this, almost the most distant of the rejuvinating waters of Hygeia. But it does so, and from here we can take stages to the other watering places over tolerably good roads.

The route to Baltimore and Washington you have often travelled, and you must have observed that the planting done near the President's house shows already that what was commenced bo scientifically by your founder, is to produce an example of value to the nation. The olimate of Washington admits of the cultivation of various beauties, which, in none of your residences, have you enjoyed the full value of; for instance, the Magnolia grandiflora flourishes there and at Richmond in most glorious beauty, shining and sparkling in all its elegance. The Crape Myrtle, Lagertromia, attains the height of fifteen and twenty feet; it was in all its glory. Various other interesting plants and trees, of which I have memoranda for you hereafter, attract the eye of the Northern planter, but I want to ask the authorities at Washington not to cultivate any more great quantities of Abele trees, and to rub off as soon as may be, the worn out whitewash that has been so regularly dashed over the trunks of the ornamental plantations. Even the trees around the capitol have been disfigured with this unnatural substance.

Whether the increasing taste for statuary of Italian marble has brought about this love of white columns or no, I leave for your solution, but it would be well for you to lend all your well established authority to abolish a negro custom.

Washington, dull as it is when there are no contracts to give out or offices to let, has its attractions, and the grand republican custom by which we were all enabled to shake the hand of a most affable President, has its advantages in making each feel a little touch of sovereignty; but would you believe me if I were to tell you the truth, that I was entrusted with a verbal despatch to the Secretary of War! now here, to the import that every thing was right in his department, and that he might remain and drink these salubrious waters as long as he pleased ! You might take advantage of this circumstance to become a little newspaperish, as one of your friends proposed to me, and write an "official" article to prove that the war with Spain is not imminent, and that Colonel Kinney's late shipwreck has given the administration a breathing spell ! Try it, and thus ascertain how your gardening friends relish politics in your pages.

I doubt much, from appearances on the route, whether you are very popularly known between Washington and Richmond. The soil, to be sure, is not propitious, but I think if your face was sometimes turned hitherward, you would be very usefully employed. A steamboat of respectable pretensions will convey you to Aquia Creek, some fifty miles, leaving at six in the morning, and as you are not subject to fatigue, you can easily reach it by leaving your new home the previous afternoon. They will tell you various periods on the route as to the hour of reaching Richmond, varying from one to five o'clock, and you will really arrive at two; if it be on a Saturday you must necessarily stay over till Monday at the "American," or the "Exchange;" the former will suit yon from its excellent attendance.

On landing in Virginia, yon will be struck with the abundance and beauty of the Big-nonia radicans, or trumpet flower, which throws up its showy red blossoms from every stem it can find, and even soon entwines the multitudinous wood piles which attest your theory that the railroad is a desperate destroyer of the native trees. As you progress, the growth is Pine, Birch, Tupelo, Oak, Magnolia glauca, and Sassafras; the Holly is rarely seen. Altogether the cultivation wears the appearance of requiring some assistance from such editors as those of Farm Journals.

In Richmond you will see much to admire. The grounds of the Capitol and around the Governor's house are well planted, (though variety has not been sufficiently studied), and have a noble appearance. The Washington monument is only waiting for the weeping figures to be placed around it; and this reminds me of a touching incident on the Potomac, as our boat passed Mount Vernon; we were a silent little company sitting on deck; and as we came opposite the depository of the sacred remains of our greatest benefactor, the bell was tolled, as is its regular custom 1 Even you might have dropped a silent tear as the thought of the cause accompanied this solemn memento 1

The popular street tree in Richmond seems to be the Tulip poplar, and I am inclined to advise you to recommend it, both for its great beauty and freedom from pestiferous insects.

The route from Richmond to the Red Sulphur is now much more easy of accomplishment than formerly: you take the railroad that is to connect Knoxville, Tennessee with tide water two hundred and ten miles to Newborn, Virginia, whence over a deeper ately bad road this place is reached by a day's ride of only thirty-eight miles.

The Red Sulphur is famed for curing incipient consumption, and I see so many getting better here that I believe it to be true. But my letter is getting too long, and I most defer till next month what I have to say to you on " spring" topics; perhaps you will not object if I bring my letter in my pocket.