From Ellen Hutchins to Dawson Turner   2 Dec 1808

[Crosshatched]

Dear Sir, Your most interesting letter found me employed finishing the drawing you wished for of Fucus tomentosus. I have sent it with drawings of some Confervae. You must not expect very much from me for alas my trembling hand has not “the ease which marks security to please”. These are the very first that I have attempted & I should hardly have brought myself to send them to you but that I thought even such drawings as mine done from the recent plants may be of some use to you.

I have sent Mr Mackay a good parcel for you containing some marine plants that I have preserved during the summer. There are some large ones of F capillaris, one a great beauty & many there are very fine specimens, together with the flowering plants you wished for. I shall try to draw F capillaris for you next summer. I got a great many plants of it last season full of fruit. When put in fresh water, the whole plant seems to burst into pieces & the water appeared full of seeds. Of F cristatus I have sent you many specimens. I have most attentively sought for all their sort of fruit than that I sent you but without success. Of the largest variety, I have examined I suppose an hundred plants of the next many hundreds for it is very abundant & I had opportunity of getting it during the whole season, and of the little beauty I found a great many plants in one spot. I wish I could discover any thing relating to it interesting to you. I have sent plants of Fucus No 10 which I believe is F fruticulosus with fruit different from that described in your synopsis. I got a single plant with capsules and have examined an immense number, it is common here all way on rocks when young the ends of the branches curl in its colour is pale olive – I have sent some fine plants of varieties of F laceratus. I should have told you what has been in my mind relating to this plant when I wrote last but that I was so ill. I think with Mr Hooker that punctatus is a variety what appears to me is that each variety of F laceratus has two heads of fruit on distinct plants, one capsules the other scattered seeds. I believe punctatus & ulvoides are of one variety. I now send plants agreeing exactly with the small spotted variety I sent you that have capsules alone. There are also in the parcel, two plants of the very large veined variety one with capsules, and one with scattered seeds. The capsules of this, have a curiously fringed appearance on the outside when magnified. The common appearance of the plant seems to me to have capsules on some plants & scattered seeds on others. What I have seen does not agree with what you describe, so that I am probably wrong. Though in a great many plants that I have examined, I have constantly observed what I mention. Your account of fructifications does not agree with what I say, for you have seen capsules as well as scattered seeds. I have met with your hooked variety —

Do not you think that the inflation of marine plants is caused by fresh water? I find here that the plants are inflated only near the mouths of rivers and brooks. The plants I have sent as Conferva arbuscula seem the same of No 22 & as you thought it a variety of arbuscula in fruit in the end of January that/but I have given all I had in that state away, but I am sure the fruit was different from this. Arbuscula is perennial & I believe but all not quite since that this is unusual, it is to be found in fruit in July. Dillwyn’s representation of arbuscula is not good as it was taken from a dried plant. A great many Confervae seem to have two kinds of fruit. In C coccinea this is very common & if you have not seen it with capsules which if I were to judge by its abundance here is hardly possible. I can send you specimens or a drawing, or both. Most of the blackish purple fruits seem to have large single sacks in the ends of the branches one in each joint. But Fucus dasyphyllus is not exactly like your plate. It is much stronger & the ramuli more obtuse. It agrees well with the description. I don’t think the plate of kaliformis the natural size very characteristic. Here the two kinds of fruit are on distinct plants. —

I enclose a little Bryum. What is it? & a very minute sertularia. I forgot to put them in the parcel. I was truly glad to find that you were so pleased with the parcel I sent in the Spring. I shall at all times be very glad to send you any thing I can find worth your acceptance. I shall never omit writing when I have any thing worth mentioning. I should feel myself very troublesome if you thought it necessary to answer me regularly. A letter from you will be at any time hugely valuable to me. I hope you will never think of writing until it quite convenient to spare the time. I am much obliged by your kind intention of sending me some specimens. Every thing directed to the care of Samuel Hutchins Esq, 26 North Cumberland Street, Dublin, or to Mr Robert Mitchell, 20 Grand Parade, Cork, I shall get safe. I fear it will be very troublesome to you to get any thing sent to Ireland. On second thoughts, I believe it would be safer to send any thing to Mr Mackay than to my brother who may be absent —

I have sent you Fucus alatus with one sort of fruit but I have given away all I had with capsules. I can save some for you after Christmas when it will be in fruit — Mr Mackay has sent me many specimens of mosses, a lichen named Borrerii, of which there are great quantities on apple trees here. I have found Bryum conoideum here in a damp part of the orchard on an old tree —

Among the lichens I have not yet been able to make much progress, probably I shall some time hence be able to do more. I may find some rarities. I am better than when I wrote last & I think better than I generally am in winter. I have had so much ill health that I think myself well when I am able to amuse myself in any way. —

I have lately got some more of the late numbers of Hist. Fuc. My friends say I am quite mad about them. I am not I think exactly what they say but if my head was distilled accordingly to the spectators plan it may be found to contain a few plants.

Believe me Dear Sir your very faithful & truly obliged —

E Hutchins

December 2^nd 1808

Since I sent you the parcel, I have found a specimen of Fucus punctatus that I wanted to send you and thought I had sent. It is a very young one found early in April with the spots only just appearing, and near the roots like F laceratus. If you wish much to see it, I can enclose it in a letter.

I always find this plant in one spot only & in the same place Ulvoides. It is impossible to distinguish one from the other when recent except by the fruit. They are equally thin the same colour red with shades of yellow brown. I have a specimen without fruit I cannot tell which it belongs to. Some seasons I see very little of either. One year after a storm in June I got a great deal of both, but I never find one without the other.

I hope Mr Mackay will be able to send you the parcel very soon. I feel very anxious that you should have it. Some of the plants you wished for I could not get but I hope I shall be able to get them next summer. I have been either so anxious about others or so ill myself all last summer that I did hardly any thing. — is the little Fucus I sent you in the last parcel like phyllitis only a variety of that plant? Here it alway grows on rocks.

[note on back of letter when folded to send}

Open carefully