From Ellen Hutchins to Dawson Turner   4 Feb 1809

My dear Sir

I have at length made up the little parcel I promised you in my last letter. I hope it will reach you safely & that any thing it contains may be interesting to you. I could have sent you more specimens of some things you wished for but that I was afraid of making my parcel too large. I shall keep what I have until I can during the spring and summer add to them specimens of every thing you wish for. If you want more of any of the things I now send pray let me know in time. I shall take care to gather shells for you. Tho’ our shores are all rocky and not as rich in shells as plants we have many more species taken up with the local coral sand in a perfect state, perhaps no one spot produces a better variety. Do you wish for many specimens of each species? I shall in some time be able to send you the Catalogue you wish for of all our plants. With the flowering plants of this neighbourhood I am pretty well acquainted, but I think I have yet much to discover in the sea plants and mosses. Of the lichens I am almost certainly ignorant. The list of all I have met with I can easily give’ perhaps you would think it better to wait until I learn more. Do just as you please & pray make any use you like of the Confervae they are in truth as much or more yours than mine. I only found but you have to describe, connect and name them. I hope to be able to give you more of all you wish for and to send sketches. I am very uncertain about No 10. I am not sure that it is not a variety of C stricta which is a variable plant. No 8 is certainly a Var. of stricta. No ?15 is to be found plentifully in May. I hope you will find it distinct from rosea. Of No 21 I hope to find more. It is rare & though you should name it after me, I fear I shall not be able to send you a cart load. Of fruticulosa & some other new ones I can send you a cargo if you will but send a ship from Yarmouth. I have plenty of Conferva riparia also paradoxa is rare. No 24 is rare. No 26 is very beautiful, I fear I shall not be able to get it again until November when you shall have a magnified drawing. No 27 is to be found at the same season as the last & is not C genuflexion. The filaments are quite simple. I have not seen genuflexa. No 30 is plenty in summer richly ornamenting other plants. No 31 is a very rare little thing & in its mode of growth unlike any thing I ever saw. I never shall forget the pleasure I felt in observing its scarcity. I hope to be able to send you a good likeness when I meet with it again. — I can give a little more of No 33. —

Of the Ulva No 2 & 3 are I think distinct species. No 2 preserves its recent appearance exactly in pressing. No 3 is much more gelatinous coarser and so tender that it breaks to pieces when touched.

It is extremely difficult to preserve. It grows in a thick tuft spreading circularly from the root. Its colour which changes in drying is when recent almost black. It would become colourless in two or three hours in fresh water. No 4 grows in immense quantity here. I can send you plenty next summer. I have opportunity of observing Ulva purpurescens from its first appearance to decay and have never yet found it in an inflated state. It has here even when very young an extremely disagreeable smell. Its growth is very rapid. Rivularia vermiculata is certainly distinct from Ulva rubens. I never saw any thing more beautiful than its magnified appearance. I am pretty sure Ulva eliminthoides is distinct from rubens & that U verticillata & another very beautiful plant I sent you marked No 6 & No 12 are all though nearly related distinct species. Of some of them I have now by me magnified sketches uncoloured which prove them distinct. I can if you like do them all for you next summer at least I can attempt to do them. In the examination of this family I felt great pleasure last summer and had them all at the same time fresh before me — I shall watch all the appearances of Ulva compressa and gather them for you. Perhaps you would like to have those of Ulva dichotoma another very variable species.

The Fucus marked No 10 & which I think from comparing it with your specimen F fruticulosus is when recent much more easily distinguished from Fucus cristatus then when dried. On the rocks where it grows, it spreads in tight, curled bushy tufts of a pale olive colour. F cristatus grows in a thick close tuft and has a very stiff straight appearance and even in the blackish cylindrical variety somewhat compressed at the end. When magnified this variety is very like Fucus fruticulosus. I am highly pleased that you think my Little Bryum is new. I send you more of it and a good many other mosses, some rare, others that I was not able to make out. The Orthotrichum have puzzled me sadly. Can you give me a specimen of Orthotrichum aristatum & O nudum. You must not say I do not ask you for what I want, how many things have you given me unasked & when I consider how very troublesome my ignorance and curiosity make me I think you very generous & very kind to answer all my questions — I suppose you don’t want Fucus Griffithsii. I have found plenty of it at the mouth of a rivulet. I sent you F norvegicas & amphibius —

My health though far from good is better than when I wrote last. I am gradually recovering strength & hope to be able to walk much next summer.

Believe me dear Sir your obliged and

very faithful

E Hutchins

Ballylickey Feb 4^th 1809