To George Washington from Lafayette, 17 December 1784
From Lafayette
New York 17th Decr 1784
I Shou’d think myself much Obliged to Your encellency if through Your Means Some of the Following Seeds might be Procured From KentucKé for the Use of the King’s Garden—Viz., The Seeds of the Coffe Tree which Resembles the Black oak
Do of the Pappa Tree
Do of the Cucumber Tree
Do Black berry Tree
Do Wild Cherry Tree
Do Buck-Eye Tree
Do of Wild Rye, Buffalo Grass—Shawanese Salad—Wild Lettuce—Crown Imperial[—]Cardinal Flower—the Tulip-bearing Laurel Tree—& the Seeds of Every thing else Curious which that Famed Country Producs.1
It wou’d be Necessary Your Encellency Wou’d order the whole to be Carefully Sent to the Care of the director of the French Pacquets at New York, that it might be Transmitted to Paris.
God Bless you, my dear General, I am Requested By Mr St John to sign this, and do it with the Greater pleasure as these seeds and trees will be very wellcome in france.
Lafayette
LS, PEL. The closing of this letter is in Lafayette’s hand; the body of the letter does not seem to be in St. John Crèvecoeur’s hand, but presumably it was he who presented it to Lafayette for his signature.
1. The trees may be identified as the Kentucky coffee tree (Gymnocladus dioica), pawpaw (Asimina triloba), cucumber tree (Magnolia acuminata), black mulberry (Moris nigra), wild cherry tree (Prunus avium), buckeye or horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), and a magnolia species. Crown imperial is a descriptive term for the cardinal flower. GW wrote Lafayette about the seed on 15 Feb. and 25 July 1785.