WCP5555

[1]¹

Spring Garden

Jamaica

7^th. June 1879.

Dear Sir²

I have decided to trouble you with this note to ascertain if you care to have for Kew³ a Coconut which has sprouted at two eyes — has two distinct young trees coming out of a single nut.⁴ I would have sent it without writing but as it is the only one I have ever seen I did not care to part with it until I knew you would appreciate it. If you say send it I will do so with pleasure.

I have just erected a 25 H[orse] P[ower] steam saw mill at a place of mine Chepstow which I have connected with my wharf on the sea coast by a line of tramway 5 miles long — a large undertaking as I have had to cut in some places thro’[ugh] 100 feet of solid Rock, and bridge a large river. At Chepstow is the only available bit of Virgin Forest which I know of in Jamaica. So far I know of 150 different kinds of Timber-trees & woods suitable for Cabinet or Carpentry work — many of them I cannot find botanical names for — this I hope to get over as Mr Jarman⁵ has promised to pay me a visit as soon as he can fit time to do so. I mention this matter because if you would care to have a box of sample pieces of my woods I shall be happy to have [2] have [sic] a set prepared for Kew: in the hope that they might attract attention from persons interested in Cabinet-woods, for some are very beautiful, notably so Eugenia fragrans var cuneata⁶. Zanthoxylem Clava Herculis. Clethra tinifolia⁷. Guettardia argentia [sic]⁸. Hufelandia pendula. Cordia Gerascanthoides[sic]⁹. Bucida capitata. Diospyros tetrasperma. Bucida buceras. Paritium elatum & P[aritium]. tiliaceum. Monorobia coccinia¹⁰. Caenothus Chloroxylon. [2 words illeg.] & numerous others known — and as far as I can make out unknown.

Sometime ago I saw an article, I think from your pen on insectiferous [sic] plants. I do not know if you are aware of the fact that Aristolochia grandiflora is one of the most voracious insect destroyers. It is a very large and peculiar but splendid flower. In the sack or cup I have seen hundreds of flies, mosquitoes, wasps, Bees, a moth of the Sphinx tribe & the large red ant — all captive and in all stages of putrefaction. The flower has a horrid smell precisely like carrion — in fact the negroes [sic] always call the plant John-Crow¹¹ Bush in consequence of this carrion-like smell. The very newest-blown flowers have scarcely any smell — but those which have been open for a day or two smell frightful. It [3] It [sic] is a nauseating job to open a full blown flower and to search its ‘abdomen’. If you have not any of the seeds of this Creeper I could send you some as I am curious to have my observations tested & confirmed.¹²

I am very anxious to establish Liberian Coffee on the land as I clear off the forest but I have had such ill fortune with the seeds of C[offea]. Liberia which at some expense I have obtained from England & the Continent that I am afraid I shall have to plant C.[offea] Arabica although I know the altitude & climate of Chepstow is far better adapted for C[offea]. Liberica. If you think it will be fair exchange for a sett [sic] of samples of my woods — and anything else I could send for Kew — orchids or ferns or Amaryllidae [sic]¹³, I should be very grateful to fit some reliable seeds of C[offea]. Liberica or to know from whom they can be got. It is not the expense I seek to avoid but the vexation of having a lot of sterile seeds.

My grandfather D^r. E. N. Bancroft¹⁴ was a correspondent of your father Sir W. Hooker¹⁵, & although I know it gives me no right to trouble you as I have done with this letter still [4] still [sic] I cannot feel as if I was addressing a stranger altho’[ugh] such is the fact. When I was in England last in 1874 I called at Kew in the hope of meeting you, though I think my anxiety to see how Angraecum funalis [sic]¹⁶prospered was an equal inducement. Unfortunately you were absent & the young gentleman who showed me the orchid — which I requested D^r. Wallace to send in my name — and he did not — seemed to think it less curious & pretty than I do. I can send you a good mass of it if you wish¹⁷. The plant I saw at Kew was a very wretched one.

I am Dear Sir, | Yours faithfully | W. Bancroft Espeut. [signature]

P[ost]. S[criptum].

I omitted to say that I hope soon to tell you that I have made a start in seri-culture¹⁸. I have invented a means by which the silk of B[ombyx]. Pernyi¹⁹ & Cynthia²⁰ can be wound. Indeed by which all silk produced by worms can be more rapidly easily & economically wound than any plan I know of.

W[illiam]. B[ancroft]. E[speut].