From Dawson Turner to Ellen Hutchins   28 Oct 1809

My dear Madam

Having nothing to tell you that may make a letter interesting, I would fain not trouble you with one, but I think it right to do so, for the sake of letting you know that about a fortnight ago I sent you thro’ Mr Mackay a considerable parcel of British Lichens, which I flatter myself you will find of service to you in the investigations of this beautiful family. They were left at Mr Sowerby’s to be called for by a Mr Terrier, who intended going about that time to Dublin, so I hope they will soon be in your hands, & if they be not so I will thank you to make inquiries about them. The name assigned to all are those of Acharius, whose generic character I will with pleasure transcribe for you, if you do not already know them. The two leading ones, Carmelia Mecidea(?), embrace the sentellate(?) & the tuberallate(?) Lichens, & are distinguished by the fruit of the former having a margin of the substained(?) of the frond, while in the latter the margin of the shields is like the Disk. L. Subfuscus & parasemus afford familiar & satisfactory examples of the two. Both the genera contain crustaceous(?) & foliaceous species. You received, I trust, in safety the mosses I sent you thro’ Capt. Mangin almost immediately after you let me know what species were desiderata with you. I have ever since been looking daily for a letter from you. H K White accompanied the Lichens, but I did not send Dante, because you had not told me whether you wished it or not. Mr Sowerby has been with me, making drawings for English Botany, but both he & all my summer friends have now left me, & I am beginning to fix into my winter habits of study & solitude, when your letters will be doubly more valuable to me than ever. I have yet heard nothing from Mr Woods, not even whether he is returned or not; nor has Dillwyn written to me for an age. Mr Hooker begs me to call your attention again to the Jungermanniae, which he is going set about tooth & nail. I try hard, but in vain, to persuade him to commit to paper what he can remember of all he saw in Iceland, & print it for the satisfaction of his friends, who are never likely to have an opportunity of feeding upon stock fish & rancid butter & egg boiled in the Geyser. It is, I think, most likely that he will go there again next summer, unless political affairs should take such a turn as to prevent him. I write in haste, which is convenient for a man who has nothing to say, but you, I know, will pardon both my hurry & sterility & will believe me not the less sincerely my dear Madam Your much obliged friend, Dawson Turner.

Yarmouth 28^th October 1809