From Dawson Turner to Ellen Hutchins   2 Sep 1808

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Can you favour me with 2 or 3 fine specimens of F alatus fit to draw.

Madam

Yarmouth 2^nd September 1808

I am sincerely sorry for the apparent neglect that I have lately shown you, & the more so at this particular time when, besides your letters, I am indebted to you for one of the most interesting parcels that I have ever received. You will however, I am satisfied, have done me the justice to believe that no common cause could have induced me so long to interrupt a correspondence from which I derive the greatest pleasure as well as instruction, & will, I think, hold me excused, when you know that, even since my return from London in May, I have been far from well in body, & much harassed in mind both by untoward events in business, & by the illness of my two youngest children, who still continue in a precarious state. Thus situated, I have had little heart for any of my favourite pursuits, to which, now things look more pleasant, I am returning with fresh delight, & I most gladly make the writing to you the first symptom of my feeling like myself again. The same circumstances, that interrupted the course of my pursuits, necessarily obliged me to abandon my projected tour to Ireland; within the compass of which I had included a visit to Killarney, & I was not without hopes that my friend, Admiral Russell, who commands upon this station, & is himself a native of the vicinity of Cork, might have accompanied me. I might then possibly have had the pleasure of becoming personally acquainted with you, but I would much rather have such a pleasure in England. If anything should bring you to this side of the channel, & you would allow Mrs Turner to be favoured with your company here. She would have as much pleasure as myself in repaying to a native of Ireland a portion of the hospitality, for which you are so famous, & for which we know that fame only does you justice, & she would have an additional pleasure in making the acquaintance of a woman with a mind formed & cultivated like yours; she was herself as ardent a botanist as you, & is now no less fond of it, though the care of a family has given a different turn to her thoughts. In the muddle in which all my study now is, I really do not know which of your letters I have to answer, & I shall therefore confine myself to the last, trusting that, if I neglect any former one, you will have the goodness to excuse me, & will repeat any question that you wish to have answered. In this the numbered plants are Bryum No 1. B carneum — Hypnum No 1. H Swartzii — No 2 H fluitans, a most variable moss. — the Jungermanniae I will have till Mr Hooker returns. He is now travelling with Mr Borrer in the Orkney Islands, after having been completely through the Western Highlands of Scotland, & visited some of the Hebrides. I hope for a great many treasures on their return, & shall be very glad to divide them with you. Your delight at finding F tomentosus in fruit could not possibly be a whit greater than mine at seeing it, & I am much obliged to you for your beautiful sketch, without which I could not have understood it properly. I would fain hope that you would not think it too great a liberty in me to beg that, when you have leisure, you should trouble yourself to make me a drawing of the whole plant for my Hist. Fuc. — I really would not ask such a thing, but that the plant will not recover after it has once been dried, nor would I now press it, if it be in any wise disagreeable to you, or if it be inconvenient to spare the time. The Ulva enclosed in your letter (No 10) is, I think, but am not sure, the same plant as has been called Conferva paniculacea, which has always been regarded as one of the most doubtful plants possible — I found it last year in the Hebrides, & had purposed describing it as a new Fucus. With regard to your parcel, you must excuse my noticing anything in this letter but the Mosses & Sertularia, of which you will find my opinion upon the other side. About the marine plants I shall take an early opportunity of writing to you, & shall leave the Jungermanniae till Mr Hooker’s return, as he is far better acquainted with them than I am.

Hypnum lutescens Hypnum rutabulam

H Thuringicum ? H loreum

Sphagnum squarrosum ? – a mixture of S latifolium & S capillifolium

Orthotrichum nudum ? – a mixture of O diaphanous &, I think, O affine, but in a very young state – O nudum is to me a very doubtful species.

Dicranum flexuosum variety elongatum ? — like mine, but not quite so long.

Dicranum flagellare ? — Right

Dicranum subulatum ? — Not so, nor exactly like any thing I know. I found it last year on the Scottish mountains. It is nearest D Scottianum.

No 1 — Orthotrichum anomalum

2. — Grimmia acuta

3. H uncinatum ? — H molluscum.

4. Buxbaumia foliosa ? right

5. — variety of Dicranum flagellare.

6. — Lycopodium selaginoides.

Sertularia No 1 – this is new to me, but, from the description of Sert. Setacea, I should think it may belong to that species. —

No 2 Sert geniculata – but not exactly like my specimens.

3. — Sert pumila – very fine – No 4 nothing that I know, nor can I find a description near it. — No 5 must, I suppose, be a remarkably fine specimen of Millepora tubulosa, which is here always found very small. — I should be obliged to you if you can spare me a specimen of Dicranum ellipticum with the veil. Mr Hooker has not yet begun to publish the Jungermanniae; nor is it likely that he will set about it until next Spring, & then, I dare say, only a Synopsis of the British species, like my Synopsis of the Fuci. His great work will be a work of time. How I wish you were now here to see his drawings which are left with me, & are exquisite. — your ideas are quite correct as to the Ulva like rubens constituting a separate genus, together with Conf gelatinosa. They are now very generally made so, under the name of Rivularia, & some Fuci must also apparently go with them, as F Wigghii. There was a pleasant book published two or three years ago on this subject, by Vaucher, entitled Histoire des Confervae d’eau douce, which, if you have not got it, & it can be picked up in London, I should be very glad to procure it for you. The difficulty is to get these things to you. I am happy to say I can supply most, if not all, the British Fuci mentioned in your letter, & you may soon expect them through Dublin Castle, but I want also to send you a parcel so large that I dare not attempt to frank it — what must I do? It is very hard that communication should be so difficult even in the same kingdom, merely on account of the intervention of a little salt water. You will excuse my saying that, however I am gratified by your opinion of my Hist Fuc, I want from you something different respecting it; that you would point out the errors you see, & suggest any additions that strike you. I mean to give as full a list as I can of additions & emendations at the close, & I am fully sensible how much there is to blame, though I am not insensible to the beauty of many of the engravings — F clavellosus is miserable! I beg of you to favour me with your letters as often as you can, & to accept the assurance of the unbounded esteem & respect of dear Madam your greatly obliged & very faithful Dawson Turner