From Ellen Hutchins to Dawson Turner   14 Oct 1812

Oct. 14

I was just going to write to you my dear Sir, when your letter was put into my hand. I then defred [sic] writing until I could examine some things & answer some of your questions. Before I do any thing, let me thank you for telling me how well you all are & for your account of little Ellen. Delicate light children I believe sincerely walk sooner than they talk. She will soon have a great deal of sweet little prattle to delight her Mother & you. Hers is a very interesting age. I am pleased to find that Mrs. Turner was well enough to enjoy the pleasures of a visit with you to such a place as Mr. Cokes. The pictures & books must delight almost any body. I fear if you were dazzled I should have been quite blinded, & would no longer have even a short-sighted eye to spy out a little Jungermanniæ in our own dear mountains. I have just turned my head about & it strikes me that few collections can present a sweeter landscape than that of this moment before my eyes. Few could unite more grandeur & softness, more variety of shape & colour. What rich, soft, vivid & fading greens are at this moment before me. Blue mountains, brown hills, & green swells surround this little spot, the bay opposite & a pretty mountain river at one side. Our landscape is the best of our country, for the little society it does afford is not such as has many charms for the mind.

Now for the plants. I long thought the Asplenium [fern] distinct from A. Adiantum nigrum but I am not yet quite sure. When I send you a parcel you shall have a store. Barren fronds preserve the form of the fertile ones, but they are rarely met with. I send you all I could find. Every frond from the root has the same appearance. What puzzles me is that I found a root with broader fronds & yet I sh’d rather think it a vary. of this than of A. adiantum nigrum, but I can’t satisfy myself. You shall see the foundation of my doubts. The Rosa sent first I was always pretty sure was a distinct species, appearing to me rather to approach canina than any other. I have a very fine large specimen to send you & some smaller ones, & you shall have a grand supply next year. I could send you seeds now if you like for yourself or any friend who would like to raise plants. Pray what name will you give it? The Rosa I sent as scabriuscula puzzles me extremely, nor can I ascertain it until next year. I believe it is not scabriuscula, but I am not sure whether I found the plant myself or whether Mr. Mackay sent it to me. The flower is white, the fruit shaped thus [drawing]. If Mr M. sent it to me it was Rosa tomentosa which it certainly is not. I shall know next season if it grows near me. Probably it is also new. Its leaves are like those of tomentosa & scabriuscula which are not distinguishable from each other. My new one is pretty plenty in hedges about me. Tomentosa is our most common species, very pretty it is. Is not rubiginosa rather rare? We have it.

May I beg you to thank Mr. Hooker for his last letter, for the engraving of J. Turneri & the specimens he sent me. I am quite delighted with the engraving. The plant is an elegant little thing & he has done justice to its beauty. I am greatly gratified at one of mine being named after you. I have spent some days in the mountains lately & enclose Jungæ &ca that I met with. The fruit of J. dicipiens I cannot find, but have much to send in a barren state. Pray ask Mr. Hooker for a list of all those he would wish to have from me, & let me have it soon that I may send a parcel of specimens for him in the next parcel I make up for you. I can spare much of every species I have found except stipulacea. Tell him I can send a good deal of obtusifolia which he asks for, tho’ I gather it in one spot [_] that Cochleariformis abounds in our mountains. I lately saw an immense quantity of Juniperina near a mountain lake when I went up a passage so steep that I could not stand & went on my knees. It is very plenty in our mountains. The leaves of hamatifolia vary as he says some being without serrations but the Calyces appear to me not to vary & he will, I hope, find it a good species. Is J. gracillima distinct from crenulata? I hardly think it can be so. I expect to get the fruit of J. incisa very soon. I never saw J. Blasia before & am glad of its being added. Pray may not Riccia fruticulosa be also a Jung.? I am ever looking for fructification but hitherto without success. We have it plenty. I hope J. Calyptrifolia will soon be published. I got it lately in fruit on rocks. It is a great favourite. I suppose No. 59 tho’ so different in habit must join platyphylla, but is not laevigata distinct? Are not the pointed toothed leaves & thin stipules enough? Has Mr. H. the fruit of the varieties of platyphylla. I think it possible that the fructification may afford marks of distinction between what are supposed varieties. The texture habit & colour are so very different that one feels disposed to doubt. I hope Mr H. will be glad to get the enclosed. One of them may, I think, be new. I can send you fine specimens of the Lichen that smells like liquorice. Very likely it is new, & also of the new Arthonia I sent you a morsel of. Pray what is the name of what I sent as the fruit of Endocarpon laete-virens. I lately got a single specimen of the fruit of Parmelia tremelloides which I had before inferior in size, that I must send you. I could not reconcile myself to keeping any thing so fine, it really is a grand specimen.

I am very stout these days. My Mother has been very poorly but just now is a little better. She always begs you & Mrs. T. to accept her regards. My love to little Ellen.

Yrs. ever E. Hutchins

Oct 14th 1812

Conferva dissiliens qu’en pensez vous?

I cannot send fern now my letter would be too heavy