From Ellen Hutchins to Dawson Turner   11 May 1808

Sir

I beg you to accept my very best thanks for your two kind & very interesting letters & for the Mosses which I have got very safe. They are indeed a treasure & will I am sure set me forward in the pursuit of a most beautiful & wonderful tribe, in which I feel ignorant as I am deeply interested. Since you sent me Musc. Hib. I have given them as much of my time & attention as I could spare from the sea plants & a variety of other employments that I must attend to. In the parcel I have by me made up for you I have put in some. I have too little knowledge & judgement to know which are most likely to be interesting to you, but I thought you may perhaps like to see what we have & if any of them should be useful, I hope it is unnecessary for me to say how much pleasure I shall have in gathering any of them for you. I have also put up specimens of all the Jungermanniae you & Mr Hooker wished for & some other new to me that I have got since I wrote to you last. I should thank Mr H for a specimen of J platyphyllus. Of J pauciflora I have got a little in fruit & I shall put into this letter all I have found of No 7 in that state. Its place of growth is at Glengarriff near Bantry along the banks of the first river as you go from Bantry, above the waterfall. J trichophylla grows by the same little river with saxifraga geum & a great variety of what the dull incurious weeds account! It truly is an enchanting little stream its steep rocky banks are xxxx wooded with oak & beech & the arbutus. Holly, Mountain Ash & Yew seem to bathe in the stream. I think that it is much to be regretted that you live in a flat country. Here we have not a quarter of a mile flat all xx round swells from the mountains to the sea & the points going into the water are high & bold. I dare say you would willingly exchange a few acres with us & I am sure many of my country men would agree, if your land would bring good potatoes but though I feel very well inclined to oblige you, I am not quite sure if the exchange could be made that I should like it. I never could bring myself to so high an exertion of generosity as to part with our dear mountains. I have delayed sending the parcel I have for you to try to get fine specimens of F mucronatus & some more if possible of F capillaris but the weather is so stormy that I fear I shall not be able to get them & unless I can have them within two or three days I shall delay it no longer. I can have them to meet you in Dublin with whatever else I can collect. I have put up for you the two best specimens I had of F capillaris. I had put a little on glass but I fear too imperfect to be of use. Of the Confervae you wish for more of, I have not put any in this parcel, it is already so large I don’t wish to increase its size. Some of them I have not at present but I think I shall have the most of them by the time you arrive in Dublin. Of the species I call C fruticulosa Mr Mackay marked a specimen thus “C fruticulosa of Jacquiz” perhaps he has been mistaken, it is the largest Conferva I have seen & is common. Both it & No 2 decay so quickly that they must be laid out as soon as possible after gathering them. They will not bear to be pressed. The stem of the former is as thick as strong twine & has no jointed appearance. As to the species you wish to give my name to pray select whichever pleases your fancy most, they are all very beautiful. Of the things in my last letter No 8 cannot I think be the same as Conferva No 23 the colour and manner of growth is very different as you will see by the parcel. No 11 seems to me distinct from F phyllitus, which I have never yet seen on this shore & can only judge of it by your specimen & description, yet perhaps further observation may show them to be the same. No 10 you have in the parcel in different stages of its growth. When recent it has a yellowish colour, & the branches have a bushy curled appearance. In the young plants particularly they are rounded & curled at the ends. It is common. I shall be very glad to hear of the arrival of this parcel but I beg you will never think of answering my Mosses unless you have convenient leisure. Whatever I can meet with worth your acceptance I shall let you know of. Much I fear I cannot do but as I am a very active person & in a very retired country, I shall be able to get you any thing it produce, as far as I can examine. At present I am in every way a very young beginner. This time three years I began to have the classification. I should have asked you for the Fuci you so kindly offered but that I feared I should ask for any thing you could not well spare, as most of those I have not seem to be rare & not on your shore. If you have plenty of any of the following I should be thankful for a specimen of either but only if you can very conveniently spare them. I hope you will not think of lending them.

And an xxx little thing I thought you may like it, I found it only two or three days ago.

Conferva No 1 is I believe not a variety of C diffusa. It is when recent a very beautiful plant & has fine varying shades of blue green. The single leaf I have sent in the parcel as a young plant of F bulbous is certainly a young specimen of a variety of that plant. It grows like that leaf long & narrow.

Of any thing I can get I can spare enough because it is my delight and amusement to gather & preserve them but I am sure them who know so many other employments for their time cannot spare them so well. Fucus natans, bulbulus, Xxxxagenoides dentatus, Norvegicus & gigantinus

If you could give me a specimen of C flexuosa or scoparia I should be glad. I have sent you Confervae xxxxx I know you have it, but as it is rare compared with the usual appearance of the plant and is divided into only four or 5 segments you do not seem to have seen it with little bundles of fibres all over the frond as is the case with all the young specimens. I am not sure that the old ones have them but I shall see — The substance of the frond is more thick, soft and tender than in F digitatus or saccharinus — believe me your truly obliged etc Ellen Hutchins

The storm is so evident that I have lost all hopes of getting any good plants of F mucronatus this Spring tide. I shall therefore send the parcel to Mr Mackay to forward to you directly —