Permit me to take advantage of a reliable opportunity to send you a tribute of my respect and the eternal gratitude I owe you for the happiness you brought me by enabling me to see my homeland again. Despite all the political unrest, I am quite happy to find myself once again among my friends and, most of all, my fortune, which, although much altered by the revolution, is still sufficient to give me independence and repose.—

let us be content with what is necessary

and never wish for superfluous treasures

which must be feared as much as poverty

in that, like it, they chase virtue away.

Florian. fable from the 2d Book

I have the honor to be your colleague as corresponding member of the Société d’agriculture du département de la Seine; it has deservedly awarded you a gold medal for your ingenious plow. No object is more useful.

I reminded the society that while I was in the United States I had sent it a vegetable that is beginning to be cultivated in the field, having previously been known only in greenhouses and frames. It is the sweet potato (Convolvulus batatas L), which is so common and good in your country. Although it is harvested in our southern departments and even in gardens around Paris, it is hard to come by. The society would like to obtain its seeds, or that at least was the wish expressed to me by one of our most active members. If you would be so kind, Sir, as to instruct an intelligent person on your land or nearby in Virginia to cultivate three or four plants specifically for their seeds, harvest them when they are very ripe, enclose them in a little tin box that closes securely, and cover it with a piece of paper addressed to the secretary of the American legation in Paris, with a notice that it is to be delivered to me, I will present it to the society on your behalf, Sir, and we will be most grateful to have it—

I have also sent seeds from the United States to Mr. Thoüin, professor and administrator of the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, and he told me that they had reached him in very good condition.

A thousand apologies for the trouble I am giving you, but since this subject is of a scientific and rural nature, I assumed that I could address it to you, as you cultivate these arts and sciences with as much pleasure as success—

Mr. Crawford, with whom I had the honor of traveling from the United States to France and who was most considerate to me during the passage, has agreed to take charge of this letter to you on his return to your interesting country from his embassy. We miss him greatly. I am with very sincere and respectful attachment