From Ellen Hutchins to Dawson Turner   27 Jul 1808

With specimens pinned onto it. Notes written by Ellen and possibly some by another hand.

Hypnum No 1

H No 2

H revolvens

Bryum No 1

H Swartzii

F cristatus with fruit I think

No 17

No 18

This grows on a decayed root of a tree by a mountain lake.

July 27^th 1808

Sir

I should have troubled you with a letter before this time but that I have been expecting to hear of your coming to Ireland. I now feel so impatient to tell you what I have met with that I take the chance for my letter finding you at Yarmouth. I had great pleasure in finding Fucus tomentosus with fruit. I enclose a fragment to show you how beautiful it is in that state. I have got some laid out on glass that will I hope enable you to see its manner of growth & I started little capsules but fearing that drying may alter its appearance I have attempted to draw it as it appear’d when recent. Magnified the plant may very easily be distinguish’d when in fruit by being cover’d with pallicid filaments. May not those filaments in this & other plants be in some way connected with the fructifications? In the little plant I sent as a Fucus mark’d No 10 the plants with fruit only have them. Perhaps No 10 is Fucus fruticulosus. I think it has two sacks of fruit & I also think that I have found one sack of fruit in the last variety I sent of F cristatus. I enclose a bit of it. Perhaps both the varieties I sent are distinct from your F cristatus. I think the beautiful little plant I sent among the Confervae numbered No 17, & that you named C parasitica is also a variation of F cristatus. I was yesterday so fortunate as to find it growing & have preserved a good store of beautiful specimens. In its mode of growth, fibrous, roots and colour, it resembles the first ones I sent you of F cristatus. When fresh it had a fine dark red colour like that of dark coloured plants of Conferva coccinea. It changes to brown & gives the water a chocolate tinge like both varieties of F cristatus. I think I have found it with fruit. The seeds seem contained in the substance of some of those little spine like branches, there were also a few small tubercles placed exactly in the leading part of some of the small branches. The morsel enclosed seems to have a tubercle & the other sort of fruit too. I have lately been highly delighted with examining the Ulva I sent you marked W. U rubens, elminthoides, verticillata & the dark brown one I sent as a variety of U rubens I believe. Do not you think they are according to the present arrangement rather Conferva than Ulva. They seem in their manner of growth & fructification as well, as I can see very nearly allied to C gelatinosa. They seem to me very distinct species. Their beautiful bundles of jointed filaments seem differently formed in each. I should like to know if you think I have been correct in what I have believed. It is impossible to express the pleasure & admiration I have felt at examining the beautiful formation of this nearly allied tribe of Ulva. I had them all by me fresh & could hardly force myself to quit them. The little fragment of an Ulva that I enclose I found lately. The plant grows to a foot & a half long & is extremely light & elegant. I have not seen any fruit. Its colour does not change in drying. I have been so fortunate as to find abundance of F capillaris very fine. I have many specimens for you & some on glass. Of many of the Confervae that you wished for more of, I have got fine specimens some [text missing] much better than those last [text missing] & others not quite as good. I had [text missing] C Arbuscola with two sorts of fruit on distinct plants, one rounded capsules, the other long parts with seeds placed in rows very beautiful when magnified. It was only a few days after I wrote to you last that I got any of the No’s of Historium Fuci. You may easily judge how delighted I have been with it. I enclose some mosses. I hope specimen No 1 may be something new. I found it at the bottom of an old lime kiln cover’d with nettles & brambles. No 2 grew in a marshy place. I have got H revolvens in fruit & a little of the small variety of H Swartzii. H dubium grows plentifully in a field here with the little Bryum enclosed. Pterogonium gracile grows near me but without fruit. Mr Mackay who first found it in Ireland sent me a specimen by which I know the plant I found. I have found Dicranum ellipticum in small quantity on a neighbouring mountain. My specimens have the seeds very perfect. I enclose two small species of Jungermanniae that I found since I wrote last. Pray I trouble you to tell me if Mr Hooker has yet begun his publication on this delightful tribe — I hope you have long since received the last parcel I sent you. Mr Mackay sent it off some time ago. — I beg you will do me the pleasure to tell me if you wish for specimens of any thing I have sent you or that I now mention & believe me your much obliged servant etc E Hutchins July 27^th 1808