To William Hutton 18 April 1839

Dear Sir,

I am afraid you must have thought me utterly forgetful - but I did not wish to trouble you again until I had thoroughly satisfied myself of my resources for our proposed undertaking. As a money speculation it evidently must not be thought of, but as I should be quite willing to undertake the descriptions of the Fossil Flora for the slight remuneration you propose, of 20£ per annum as a means of procuring a few books connected with the subject, it only remained for me to consider carefully whether I was likely to have sufficient opportunity for discharging my engagement faithfully. I have been carefully studying the ferns, a branch of Botany to which I had never paid a very scrupulous attention before - & I have found this a much more extensive subject than I had supposed. I have run my eye over a large collection of Dr Lindley's, & selected several duplicates for my own Herbarium, which is not very rich in this department, & I have just returned from examining a splendid collection of living species at Milton House. I now see the extent of the subject, so far - and my conclusion is, that I should like to have a little more time before I begin describing, for I think that the present defect of the Foss. Bot. lies in a want of description of the specimens there named; & I should propose to attend to this in future. A mere figure & a name is hardly enough. Lindley acknowledges this. I am so circumstanced that I could do very little for 5 months in the year, whilst I reside in Suffolk & should have to devote my attention to the fossils chiefly during the 6 months that I reside in Cambridge. My plan then would be to be ready for examining whatever species you can send me by next November when I return to Cambridge, & as far as I have prepared the descriptions you might then advertise the continuation of the work - if this suits you. Sedgwick advises a Quarto size instead Octavo, which would be convenient in some respects, but unnecessy. for many of the specimens. I should be very glad of any authentic specimens (however incomplete) of species already named, of which you may have duplicates.

Believe me

very truly yrs

J. S. Henslow