From Dawson Turner to Ellen Hutchins   25 Mar 1811

At length, my dear Madam, I have had the satisfaction of receiving a letter from you, & it has given me more pleasure than I am either able or shall attempt to describe, to find that you are well & are not offended with me for my long & most neglectful silence. Of your parcel I have at present received no tidings, but I can wait for it with great patience as I have had your letter. I only hope it will come in safety. Mr. Hooker, not very civilly, refuses to allow me to give you his Journal, which was yesterday completed. He insists upon your taking it from himself, & it shall be sent within a very short time, by which I hope to have received a copy of Vaucher which you must do me the favour to accept from me. This is but a sorry return for the very many things you are continually sending me, & for the trouble you are always taking in making me drawings; but I cannot help myself; & if in this, as in every other respect, I must be your inferior, I must. You are very kind to allow me to call myself an old friend of yours; presuming on which, like those who according to the old saying when they are allowed an inch take an ell, I venture to claim one of the privileges of friendship, by begging that, so far from apologising for communicating to me particulars of what concerns yourself or family, you would be persuaded that by so doing you really gratify me, & convince me I hold the place I wish to do in your opinion. For myself I could even read the adage of “love me love my dog” so literally, as to tell a friend if the little spaniel that is now asleep at my feet was ill. Mr.Hooker is about to push his Jungermanniae most briskly forward: it is to appear in monthly Nos each with 5 plates, price about [illegible] & he hopes the first will be out by the 1^st of June, at the head of which is to stand the species that is honoured with your name. You have not found it, I suppose, with any other fruit than mere calices; if you have, pray let us have it without delay; & would say the same as to any fresh discoveries you may have made in this genus. The Bishop of Norwich, under whose privilege I shall send this, is now at No 45 Wigmore Street, London, & you can direct anything not weighing above an Oz, under cover to him there for me.

I shall avail myself of this opportunity to send you three Hypna [mosses] that I think  you will like to see. My own Fuci, it is at length determined, are to form a 4th vol. for which I have nearly a sufficiency of materials, & I have promised, both for my own sake & the publisher's, to let them appear regularly every month, if it be by any means possible. Thank you for the sketch of the fruit of F. flagelliformis - it is very much better than any I ever saw before. Can you oblige me with a specimen on glass, of such a nature, or rather so laid out, as to be intelligible? - The Opegraphae are indeed puzzling: I once amused myself with writing a monograph of them, &  thought I had succeeded á merveille, but when after a short respite I tried to examine some of the species by my own characters, there was so much room for discontent that I have never opened the papers since.

Farewell, my dear Madam, accept

once more the assurances of the unfeigned regard & esteem

of Your much obliged friend

Dawson Turner

Yarmouth 25th Mar 1811

Mr Sowerby cannot make a drawing of the flower of Utricularia intermedia, except he can have it fresh. If you should luckily find it so, pray send a specimen by post in a little moist moss to him at N° 2 Mead Place, Lambeth. - I do not know if you take English Botany: if not, it will interest you to know it is drawing fast to a close. 2100 species are already figured; to which you must add above 400 Fungi in a separate work. A most magnificent work is just published on Shells, professing to be a general system of conchology, but being in reality nothing more than descriptions & figures (some of them the most beautiful I ever saw) of about 6 species of each genus. The only merit of the book is that among the univalves it doubles the number of Genera, & makes assemblages really very natural. Its author is a Mr Perry, a man of no character as a naturalist.