Notes at the top of page one where specimens were pinned. Ellen’s notes and also William Jackson Hooker’s answers, comments and questions (WJH in italics).
No 2 Grew on a stone
quite new to me should be glad of more.
W J H (Hooker)
No 4 is this J multiflora?
J bicuspidata
J multifl of Dicks in the same.
No 5 grew in a wood
J pauciflora of Dicks.
No 6 near to root of an old tree
J pauciflora in a state likely to bear fruits. I much want specimens in fr.
No 7 by a mountain rivulet in a shady place
No 7 is quite new and very beautiful species of the tribe of J platyphylla there is young fr upon it. If found lately it is most likely now in perfection. Pray write for plenty of it. J Hutchinsii if you like.
No 8 grew creeping on the top of a tuft of Dicranum glaucum.
A common species but not described. — Dickson calls it J fissa but it is not it. I should be glad of it with capsules. It bears calyces with us, but no fruit.
No 9 a small variety of J viticulosa I believe.
A variety of J spinulosa I think. Should be glad of more of it; particularly in fruit.
[And there is a drawing in pen by Ellen on the sheet.]
Your very interesting letter found me busy preserving mosses, at which I have been employed almost night & day since I got your book. I must again thank you for it & all the pleasure it has given me. I am quite delighted with the new arrangement. What a variety of new reflections the examination of objects so minute, so various, & so beautifully formed brings to one’s mind. I am greatly delighted to find that you have got the parcel of plants safe & that so many of them were interesting to you. Had they been lost I never should have had much hope in sending things again. I am much delighted for the var. of F. cristatus you sent me. It has satisfied me that what I thought the beginning of young fructifications were really so. They are too young to appear after drying but were similarly placed with those on your specimens. Mine was found on the 18 September & I suppose the fruit ripens in winter but as the rock where it grows is at some distance in a very exposed place & very difficult to land on except in the calmest weather I have not been able to go to it. I shall however attempt it the very first fine weather & hope to find the plant in fruit. The jointed appearance is very striking when the plant is fresh, the joints are somewhat crescent shaped, a flat plant with that appearance seemed to me very curious. I send a fragment or two that was never pressed. The colour is very fine, pinky red, pale but bright. I wish I could send you a plant in any way that would satisfy you whether it be a distinct species or not as you seem to have some doubt. If I could get any liquor to preserve plants in, it would be of great use. I tried Brandy, the colour was spoiled, but the form preserved.
We have plenty of those large plants of F coronopifilius do you wish to get more of them? It is in fruit from the middle of August to November. I have seen but one sort of capsule — Of No 1 the tubercles are more prominent & pointed than in any I have seen of F lacinatus. I am sure the name you intend is a very appropriate one, pray give to every thing I may find what name you please. I have not the least knowledge of what would be right. No 2 is I believe not F clavellosus young, it has a different appearance & is to be found later in the season than the latter. I shall soon be able to get specimens by which you may judge with certainty — of No 4 I have not fine specimens. Those I sent you were sadly preserved. I thought the reticulations of the fronds in some I examined were not quite like F hypoglossum but I believe it is only a monstrous var. Our F hypoglossum seems smaller than the plant you sent me. — Of No 5 I got only the fragment I sent you, it's not like that of F loreus struck me as singular — In the specimens of F Tamariscifolius I sent you the branches do not grow from knots, but I enclose a little bit of a plant that does grow so & that has when underwater the colour you describe but loses it the moment it is taken up. No 7 has after being thrown in for I never saw it growing fine shades of purple & green like F crispus — Our F tomentosus is double the size of what you describe both in length & thickness. Do you really think it a vegetable? I always feel when I touch it, as if I was giving pain to something that had feeling. When I have a specimen laid out, it will sometimes roll on the paper & close again, or when I separate two branches, they will close again. When kept for an hour or so, it has a most disagreeable smell. We have it in immense quantity. We have a compressed variety of F articulatus varying somewhat in the shape of its joints. Our F Wigghii is longer than you describe. I have a plant 9 inches long. I enclose you a variety of F cornea I have others to send. Now to the Ulva I must send you what specimens I have of No 1 & I still think you will find the large & small only varieties. I think I have connecting specimens, but you will see. I have now by me a plant of the small variety, a very young one too preserved in Brandy that shows to the naked eye a faint midrib running all through it, the Brandy seems to have extracted the juice of the plant I/& left the skin whole. The same plant when recent did not have the least appearance of mid rib, & some others found with it the same day, do not show it dried — I shall put No 2 on glass for you, thank you for mentioning that mode of preserving for future examination. No 4 is plenty in summer. I thought it seemed distinct from U compressa. No 6 is beautiful when fresh like transparent jelly with purple dust scattered over it. Is the bit I enclose the same of/as [the] one without name or number? — I have Ulva purpurascens & a large dirty looking brown Ulva as thick as my little finger much & irregularly branched that Mr Mackay thought a variety of U Rubens. I have U elminthoides too, & one or two more I did not send you but you shall have them in the next parcel. I think I shall have a good number to send you by the first of May.
The beautiful Sertulariae you sent me are of great use. I enclose you a small species & Tubularia. Have you got polyzonias, loricata, lendigera & cornuta? I have some more morsels that I do not know the names of, & large orange coloured lumps of Millepora pumicosa — I enclose some Jungermanniae. I think I have found the fructification of J spherocephala. Withering does not describe it. I think you may be glad to see it. It appears to me to grow in a most extraordinary manner. The bottom of the involucres goes into the earth & it is fastened only at the edge to the last years leafy shoot of the plant. What I thought was Bryum sessile is Grimmia rivularis. We have plenty of G maritima. I enclose a little Dicranum that grows in turf bogs. Dicranum majus is one of our very commonest mosses. I hope to be soon able to tell you more about our mosses & when I learn more, I shall be very glad to save for you any that you may wish to have. I should be very glad to get a specimen of any species of Splachnum as I have never seen one.— I have not in this letter left room to ask for the specimens of sea plants, you are so good as to offer, but in my next I shall trouble you though indeed, I think you have sent so many I shall not have many more to ask for — I am with much respect your obliged servant E Hutchins. March 14th 1808
I shall get you xx possible good specimens of F esculentus — the beginning of next month will be a good time to get them.
Please cite as “EHT008,” in Ɛpsilon: Ellen Hutchins Collection accessed on