WCP440

Letter (WCP440.440)

[1]

Washington D. C.

April 4th [1887]

My dear Mitten1

I send you by this post (but it may perhaps be delayed) a tin box with a lot of bulbs of spring plants gathered in an excursion yesterday with Prof[essor]. Ward2, in the woods on the N[orth]. bank of the Potomac R[iver].

There are a good lot of the Erythronium Americanum3 (yellow) which grows in masses in the shade among leaf mould, a stiff granitic clay, indifferently. If you will plant them in a bed anywhere in your garden I dare say they will grow. The purple leaf is Tipularia discolour a rare American orchid — "The Crane Fly Orchid" — This grows in very light half decomposed leaf mould, and if planted in a bed in your greenhouse will no doubt flower. There is also one plant of Aplectrum hyemale — "Adam and Eve Orchis" — much more common but the tubers were mostly so large that I had not room for them in the box. The leaves are green pale striped, [2] and not purple beneath. This also in leaf mould. Both flower in July or August after leaves have died away.

Last week I sent a box to Mrs Jekyll4 (to take care of for me) containing a lot of interesting plants many some not in cultivation in England. An Erigenia bulbosa5 a pretty umbellifer6 3-4 inches high[,] Hydrophyllum virginicum7, Viola glabella8, Stellaria pubera9, Dentaria laciniata10, besides Jeffersonia diphylla11, Podophyllum peltatum12 and Claytonia virginica13, — with a lot of Woodsia obtusa14. If you go to Godalming this summer you can go & see how they are getting on. There is very little in flower yet but I am told that in two or three weeks the woods will be masses of flowers. It is very interesting to see how totally different the general indigenous vegetation is to ours. All our commonest things — buttercups, primroses, daisies, blue bells — altogether absent, — and in place of them the creeping arbutus15 [3] (Epigaea repens) The hepatica16, and a lot of Thalictrums17, some Cruciferae18

a poor saxifrage (S. virginica19) and the other plants I have named take their place. I leave here in two days for Cincinnati, and in May to Kansas — but as yet have no engagement whatever in California & I am afraid shall not get there. The flora here is rich, there being about 1300 species of flowering plant and ferns within a dozen miles of the city, though a considerable number of them are extremely local.

It must be grand here in summer where the the [sic] Tecoma radicans20 with its great scarlet blossoms is in flower. It climbs over trees & bushes just like our Clemats [sic]. The vines too are most luxuriant running up to the tops of the highest trees, while the variety of the trees & shrubs is most puzzling. But there is a bareness on the ground, a want of any carpet of vegetation like our turf, which is disagreeable [4] I do not know whether it is the same every where [sic], but the ground around all the towns & cities & villages seems to have been exhausted & to leave only a scraggy weedy vegetation. It In summer and autumn however it is no doubt very different, and the display of the Compositae21 then is said to be fine. I shall no doubt see some of this further west.

With kind remembrances to all at Hurst22 and hoping you are all well

Believe me, | Yours very truly | A. R. Wallace [signature]

P.S. I think I am better in health so far than in England. The warm houses suit me exactly, & I don’t catch cold notwithstanding the constant & rapid changes of temperature.

A.R.W. [signature]

The "Pall Malls" came all right & are very acceptable.

1
William Mitten (1819-1906), English pharmaceutical chemist and authority on bryophytes.
2
Lester Frank Ward (1841-1913), American botanist, palaeontologist and sociologist.
3
A herbaceous flowering plant found in North America, commonly known as Trout lily or Yellow dogtooth violet.
4
Gerturde Jekyll (1843-1932), British horticulturist, garden designer and writer.
5
A perennial plant in the carrot family, also known as 'harbinger of spring' and 'pepper and salt'.
6
Umbellifers are plants with showy clusters of flowers.
7
The correct spelling is Hydrophyllum virginianum. It is a herbaceous perennial plant native to eastern North America and commonly known as Virginia Waterleaf.
8
A plant with yellow flowers commonly known as the Stream Violet or Pioneer Violet.
9
A wildflower found in eastern North America also known as Star chickweed.
10
Commonly known as Toothwort.
11
An herbaceous perennial plant also known as twinleaf or rheumatism root.
12
An herbaceous perennial plant native to deciduous forests in eastern North America, commonly known as Mayapple.
13
An herbaceous perennial plant native to eastern North America, commonly known as Eastern spring beauty or Virginia spring beauty.
14
A common rock fern of Appalachia and eastern North America.
15
A low spreading shrub native to North America commonly known as mayflower.
16
An herbaceous perennial of the buttercup family, commonly known as liverwort.
17
An herbaceous perennial of the buttercup family.
18
An old name for brassicaceae, a family of flowering plants.
19
An herbaceous wildflower native to eastern and central North America.
20
A species of flowering plant now called Campsis radicans and commonly known as trumpet vine or trumpet creeper.
21
A family of plants commonly known as aster, daisy or sunflower family.
22
Mitten lived in the village of Hurstpierpoint in Sussex.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP440.440)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Sloyan, Victoria [2014-04-15]

Please cite as “WCP440,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 2 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP440