I have received your kind letter which has given me much pleasure & much to thank you for. I am greatly obliged by your kind attention in sending me your book on Mosses. I have not yet got it, but I dare say it will come very safe. From my ignorance of the language in which this is written I fear I shall not be able to understand much of it. I should be very glad that any Mosses I can get here could interest you. We have Bryum sessile growing on rocks at the mouth of a river that falls into the sea just below this house & I met with a little of Bryum laterale in fruit on a mountain in August. For the Sertulariae I am also much obliged. I have met with some since I last wrote to you. If you should want J pluma I can send beautiful specimens. I have some others, but I am not sure of their names & a beautiful little corallina I am told is cristata. I entirely mistook the plant you wish to publish. It seemed to me an Ulva (but most probably I am mistaken) & as such I sent it in the parcel marked No 1. When fresh it is perfectly round & has no appearance of midrib. After a few minutes passing it becomes quite flat & shows the thread that runs through it. It is when recent both to the eye & to the touch very sticky & gelatinous & yet it does not adhere to paper like other gelatinous plants as its substance is thin & watery, the skin which is extremely thin, seems to be the colour’d part of the plant & within it the seeds are scattered, in decay pieces fall off & leave the thread bare. If you should wish to see it in that state, I have a specimen that I can send. The colour preserves well in drying. Young plants are of a dark purplish red, have no appearance even after drying of the mid-rib, & adhered better to paper than the full grown ones, which are of a fine red colour. It is truly fastigiate in its manner of growth, is a rare plant & seems of quick growth & short duration, to be found only for a little time in October. I have met with it thrown up in two places here, at Eagle Point & below Blue Hill, as far as I have yet had experience it has appear’d each year exactly at the same time. I enclose some little spares, one a young plant, the others older, that show the fruit & root. I enclose you all I have met with of F. Palinella / palmetto in fruit. I found it growing pretty plentifully on a little island called Chapel Island.
Its colour when recent is as bright as that of Fucus asparagoides. A specimen dried without spreading would expand again in water & show the colour. I can send one in this state if you should wish it. F ligularus is when growing of a very dark brown olive colour & very glossy.
Both it & Fucus viridis have what appeared to me a very strange quality, that of causing other sea plants to decay. I lost a large box full of very fine specimens by them. Whenever they touched other plants they were in 3 or 4 hours quite destroyed particularly Fucus ovalis, kaliformis and clavellosus. A beautiful green Conferva that preserves well in drying was changed to a dirty white. They are themselves unhurt. I have not seen the fructifications of F ligulatus but shall carefully watch for it during the next summer — I think I have been fortunate in finding specimens of Ulva multifida. I have met with about 20 of different ages from April to October. —- I hope you have before this time received the parcel of sea plants. Mr Mackay assures me of its safety & says that he can now forward any things I may have to send to you by Government dispatches & that they will certainly reach you safely. Do you want specimens of the following Fuci? Esculentus, articulatus, opuntia, amphibia, varieties of ciliates, membranifolius, palmatus we have an immense quantity, tamariscifolius I think, fibrosus not common, 5th & 8th vars of vesiculosus, asculentus, tomentosus, & flagelliformis, we have Ulva defracta & ligulatua, — should you like to get seeds of Arbutus unedo or any of the plants I mentioned you shall have as many specimens as you please of those you wish for. The arbutus does not blossom until October & November it is just now out of flower. I shall send you the Jungermanniae for Mr Hooker. I have not seen any of those he wishes for in fruit but I am likely to find julacea & quinquedentata in that state. I enclose 2 or 3 species & I should like to know if you wish me to enclose you separated plants of those Mr H wants or delay & send them as they grow in thick tufts. I have many other kinds such as multifida, reptans, sphaerocephala etc but I believe they are common.— I am much obliged for the assistance you are so good as to offer me in lichens. The difficulty it must be to you to send specimens to such a distance will account me of giving you so very much trouble. I can get some help from Dublin & if I can learn that any things I may meet with are rare I shall not neglect to send them to you. It would be a delightful thing to hope for a work on lichens by you. I have sent for the numbers of your Historia Fucorum & wait for them with as much impatience as you can imagine. If there is anything I can do for you here you will do me the pleasure to let me know. I have a variety of Polypodium filiamus with the lobes deeply serrated almost to the midrib. Saxifraga felien grows plentifully on a mountain near this place with S ambrosia which is one of our most common plants, very ornamental on rocks by the sea where it grows most luxuriantly.
I beg leave to assure you of the respect with which I remain your much obliged servant.
E Hutchins
Ballylickey February 1st 1808
Please cite as “EHT006,” in Ɛpsilon: Ellen Hutchins Collection accessed on