WCP440

[1]

Washington D. C. April 4th [1887]¹

My dear Mitten²

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. Ward,³ in the woods on the N. bank of the Potomac R. [River].

There are a good lot of the Erythronium Americanum ^(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 Miss Jekyll⁴ (to take care of for me) containing a lot of interesting plants many ^some not in cultivation in England. An Erigenia bulbosa a pretty umbellifer 3-4 inches high Hydrophyllum virginicum [Hydrophyllum virginianum], Viola glabella, Stellaria pubera, Dentaria laciniata^, besides Jeffersonia diphylla, Podophyllum peltatum and Claytonia virginica, — with a lot of Woodsia obtusa. 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 arbutus [3] (Epigaea repens) The hepatica, and a lot of Thalictrums, some Cruciferae, a poor saxifrage (S. virginica) 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 radicans with its great scarlet blossoms is in flower. It climbs over trees & bushes just like our Clematis. The vines too are most luxuriant running up to the tops of the highest trees, while the variety of the trees & shrubs is most frizzling. 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, but the ground around all the towns & cities & villages seems to have been exhausted & to bear only a scraggy weedy vegetation. It In summer and autumn however it is no doubt very different, and the display of the Compositae then is said to be fine. I shall no doubt see some of this further west.

With kind remembrances to all at Hurst⁵ 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.

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