LXXX. LXXX
JEFFERSON TO MADAME LA COMTESSE DE TESSE[1]
LXXX. [Extract—Ford, ix, p. 439.]
[Dec. 8, 1813.]
Lewis's journey across our continent to the Pacific has added a
number of new plants to our former stock. Some of them are curious,
some ornamental, some useful, and some may by culture be made
acceptable to our tables. I have growing, which I destine for you, a
very handsome little shrub of the size of a currant bush. Its beauty
consists in a great produce of berries of the size of currants, and literally
as white as snow, which remain on the bush through the winter, after
its leaves have fallen, and make it an object as singular as it is beautiful.
We call it the snow-berry bush, no botanical name being yet given
to it, but I do not know why we might not call it Chionicoccos, or
Kallicoccos. All Lewis's plants are growing in the garden of Mr.
McMahon, a gardener of Philadelphia, to whom I consigned them, and
from whom I shall have great pleasure, when peace is restored, in ordering
for you any of these or of our other indigenous plants.
