From Robert Graham   9 February 1830

Edinburgh

9 February 1830

My dear Sir

I fear you will think me a most thankless dog for having been so long of acknowledging your very obliging letter of the 25 Dec r Nov r, which I received on the 31 st Dec r. with the accompanying most acceptable collection of specimens- I was amiss from sending a base acknowledgement of such kindness, & have been accumulating a package for you which I have not yet had an opportunity of sending. I did not forget your wish to have a specimen of our Nepenthes but dried one several months ago, & as it afterwards produced its male blossoms I also dried a spike which shall accompany the pitcher – The female plant has also blossomed again, & I hope to be able to send you a portion of the female spike– You are good enough to bid me ask for duplicates of any of the specimens which you sent to me, but my conscience will not permit me to do this. I feel infinitely obliged to you for such as you have sent to me.–

I am not sorry to hear that you were done with your Proctorship before the late Row, when the Proctors authority seems to have been but indifferently attended to. The duties of the office must have been sufficiently unpleasant to you, & therefore I congratulate you that they have ceased.

Last year you were prevented from coming to Scotland after having more than half promised it.– May I hope that you contemplate it this season. My trip was so very successful last season that I mean to visit the same ground again– We added to the British flora Carex Vahlii, to the Scotch Car Saxifraga caespitosa, & found a profusion of Phleum Polytrichum alpinum in fruit, not above three imperfect specimens of the fruit were, I believe, ever found in Britain before– Phleum alpinum I never pressed but two specimens of before, but there we found many.– I had only one specimen of Carex Vahlii, but next year I hope to obtain duplicates when you shall not be forgotten. But my dear Sir if you knew how much pleasure it would give me if you would come & gather them yourself, I think your benevolence would bring you to Edin. r before the 1 st of August– do pray think of this–

May I beg that you will have the kindness to order half a ream of Chalk paper such as I had from you last year, to be sent, as then, to Mr Hunneman of Queen S t Soho Square. Will you also have the goodness to desire a discharged Bill to be sent to Mr Hunneman along with the paper. I have instructed him to pay it–

Oblige me by remembering me to Mrs. Henslow & believe me

My Dear Sir | Yours most truly | Robert Graham

Please cite as “HENSLOW-111,” in Ɛpsilon: The Correspondence of John Stevens Henslow accessed on 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/henslow/letters/letters_111