From Ellen Hutchins to Dawson Turner   7 May 1811

My dear Sir

I have been for some days expecting to hear from you & have on that account deferred communicating the only rarity I have met with for some time. I can hold out no longer & must send you in this letter the fruit of Lecidea pustulata which I have found in plenty on one high dry mountain cliff. You shall have in the next parcel a good supply of large specimens, the enclosed are only fragments just to satisfy present curiosity. I am particularly pleased with having found this plant in fruit as you once asked me to seek carefully for it. At that time I had little hope of finding it. I begin to be superstitious & to think you have some power of making me find all you wish for. Pray tell me what else I must look for - for I shall be sure of finding what you desire. Pray tell me has Lecidea pustulata been found with fruit in Britain. I read somewhere that it had been found in Sweden & that the fruit was near the centre of the plant, in all my specimens the fruit is near the edges. The plants are large & of thick texture, very much & deeply puckered. I enclose a Hypnum that I found lately in a bog in tolerable plenty without fruit, is it not Stramineum [Calliergon stramineum]? There is a little Jungermannia too that you once said was minutissima but the leaves are very different I think. I have a few more Lichens unlike any I sent you but they are on stone & I can’t enclose morsels though I am anxious that you should see them. The weather has been most unfavourable for taking walks so that I have not been able to do much. I have abundance of a species of Baeomyces of which I enclosed you a morsel under cover to the Bishop of Norwich. I hope you got my letter safe. Has my parcel reached you? I feel particularly anxious for its safety on account of the drawings it contained. When the weather gets better & that I can have a little more leisure I hope to visit the mountains. I expect to find many Lichens, I never go out without bringing in something new.

I am very anxious now to find Jungermanniae for Mr Hooker’s fine work. He draws them so beautifully, one is quite happy to see some of the most beautiful of the minute works of nature so represented. I never can find the fruit of J. tomentella though it is a common species. Is it found in England with fruit? I do not find any new Confervae of late. I believe I have got almost all this country produces. I hope to hear before long that you & Mrs Turner are well. Pray tell me of anything I can do for you here, & let me know in time if you wish for more specimens of any of our sea plants. You will soon I suppose have all Sir T. Gage’s lichens. He intends leaving Ireland the first week of June. I believe he has got several new species, he has had a fine situation to work in.

Believe me ever faithfully Yours

E Hutchins

May 7^th 1811