Text at top of letter:
The enclosed moss is Splachnum ampullaceum a most beautiful plant of which I will send fine specimens by Mr Mackay. Can I ever be useful in procuring any books for you on any subject, or in giving an opinion, which I will always do to the best of my abilities.
Madam
You will, I am apprehensive, think that I have been sadly negligent having this long delayed to thank you for your last letter & to give my opinion upon its contents, as well as upon the Confervae which you were so kind as to forward to me sometime ago. I could most easily fill this sheet of paper with my excuses, & that without having recourse like Tasso or Voltaire to fiction to aid the truth, but as such would be but sorry amends, I shall on the other hand trust to your goodness to excuse a neglect that has been most involuntary on my part, & shall at once state my sentiments, such as they are, though they are very unsatisfactory to me, & I fear likely to prove still more so to you. The little moss contained in your letter is Dicranum cerviculatum in the description of which in Misc. Hib. there is an error, that the leaves are described nerveless.
Of the Jungermanniae Mr Hooker says
No 2 is quite new to him
4. is Jung multiflora as you suppose (J bicuspidata is the same)
5. Jung pauciflora & No 6 same in a state likely to bear fruit, which he much wants.
7. Is a new & most beautiful species of the tribe of J playtyphylla; there is young fruit upon it so that it may probably be now in perfection. (I beg your permission to name this Jung Hutchinsiae.)
8. A common species, but not yet described. Dickson has confirmed it as J fissa.
9. Mr Hooker thinks is a variety of J spinulosa.
1. Jung sphorocephala – as you say. (It is also J trichonnaus of Dickson.)
No 3. Jung trichophylla, in fruit, very rare indeed —
Of these Jungermanniae Mr H begs for a supply (if you can procure it without trouble) of No 2, 3, 6, 9 & particularly as much of No 7 as you can spare or procure - & he also wishes for No 8, if in fruit — He will be very happy to send you any British species that you want. The Sertularia that you sent me on blank / black paper is altogether new to me — the other which was loose in your letter is Sertularia dichotoma but in my opinion is not distinct from Tubularia ramosa; I suspect that Ellis’ Tubularia muscoides is also only Sert volubilis in an imperfect state. The specimens of F subfuscus contained in your letter is, as you justly observe, a very curious one, & your account of its progress is very interesting to me, as it is precisely similar to what I have observed of Conf elongata, one of its nearest affinities, upon our own coast. The Fucus, that you enclosed a bit of, originating from knots in the stem is F mucronatus, & I shall be very thankful for perfect specimens of it, as all mine are fragments unfit to draw. It requires to be watched in different stages, for Proteus himself was not more variable. The loose Ulva in your letter is only U compressa, & certainly different from that which was in your parcel without name or number. The other Fucus in your letter cannot be F edulis, as Mr Mackay supposes, nor do I think that it is F laciniatus, though there are two specimens so named in Dr Scott’s Herbarium which I suppose to be the same but which are without fruit. I should rather apprehend that, when found perfect, it will prove new. I shall look anxiously for the parcel that you are so good as to promise me next month; Mr Mackay will have the kindness to forward it via Mr. Foster & as I shall soon have occasion to send him some cuttings of Willows, by the same conveyance I will slip in a few mosses etc for you. You can scarcely conceive how pleased I am at you having directed your attentions to & being delighted with, this tribe. Can any thing be more wonderful or are the traces of the hand of the Deity anywhere more visible? I shall never forget the emotions I felt on the first day that I examined & determined to study mosses. Pray do not scruple to make me as useful as it is in my power to be to you, & write to me as often as you have any doubts to solve or anything to communicate. You do not know how much pleasure your letters give me, & when I tell you that I live here the only resident partner of a large banking establishment, that I have no small botanical correspondence, & have also on my hands a great part of the education of my little girls, you will scarcely think me unreasonable if I entreat of you not to be too scrupulous in exacting an answer to every letter before you oblige me with a second. Now then for the Confervae, about which genus I must premise that we are all at present in the dark, knowing no more than just what Roth & Dillwyn have published.
No 1 may not this be a variety of C diffusa
*2. New species – near sister to C stricta
3. C tetrica as you say.
No 4. C stricta
*5. *6. *7. Beautiful new species. I never saw one of them before.
*8. This too, I think new, but it is, like No 2 very near C stricta
9. We have found this at Yarmouth, but I know no name for it.
10. Var. of C Stricta, I think
*@11. This will not come off the paper so as to be well examined.
*@12. Conf Turneri Eng. Bot. I never saw it half so fine.
*13. Most beautiful new species
*@14. & *@15. These also seem new, but are near C littoralis
16. Conf tomentosa *@17. Conf parasitica
*@18. I think may be a var. of C glomerata & *@19. Of C sericea
20. C multifida Eng. Bot.
*21. One of the most beautiful plants I ever saw, either this or No 5 or No 7 must be called C Hutchinsiae – choose which you please. I ask this favour at your hands & hope you will not deny me.
*@22. I think a var of C arbuscula *@23. Certainly new. There is another very fine Conferva that you call *@ C fruticulosa, a name I am unacquainted with nor do I know where the plant is described. After all, what I have written about these plants is so unsatisfactory that I would destroy my letter if I thought that any further examination would enable me to say anything better. Even this, however, is the most unequivocal evidence to prove how interesting the contents of your parcel are. I have taken the liberty of prefixing asterisks to those I particularly wish for more of, but I beg you will neither take any trouble nor rob your own collection for the purpose. Indeed anything from your shores will always be acceptable to me as I have many hungry mouths constantly gaping around me. It is for these & not for myself that I am a beggar. Fucus tomentosus has caused the same doubts in me as in you & I shall be very glad of any light upon the subject. Sert loricata I have not, the others that you are so good as to offer, I do not want. Of F coronopifolius I will beg a further supply at a future time. I have barely left room to repeat once more the assurance of the respect & esteem with which I really am Madam your very faithful & much obliged servant D T
Yarmouth 19th April 1808
Please cite as “EHT010,” in Ɛpsilon: Ellen Hutchins Collection accessed on