WCP5604

[1]

Hurstpierpoint.

Oct. 6, 1865.

My dear Hanbury /

I return the Opoponax¹ puff², according to your request. What puzzles me in it is how the British & Spanish Expedition could bring from Mexico the dried flowers of a Sicilian plant³.

Will you be good enough to tell me the name of the two Poplars that grow on Clapham Common? The one with sinuate leaves I took to be P[opulus]. canescens — the other with entire^(?) leaves seemed scarcely to be P. nigra; but I had no book to examine them by. The latter has a more spiry (less spreading) mode of growth, & I particularly wish to know its name, for it is the most notable of any European tree I have seen for that buttress-like development of the base of the trunk which attains such marvellous dimensions in the trees of the Amazon.

I came here with the determination to never say a word more to you about my health, unless I could speak of amendment. For the first two weeks I could not do so, but for some days [2] past I have been able to sit up to work 4 or 5 hours a day. My promenades are short, and scarcely extend beyond the esplanade along the south side of the church; for a very few minutes' walking knocks the breath out of me.

Mitten⁴ has been exceedingly civil to me since he has found out that I "won't stand no nonsense"; but there is still so very much to be done with the mosses, that I have put my hand to help with them, & have for the present laid aside the Hepaticae. I have found a capital assistant in sticking down the specimens in one of Mrs. Davey's little girls; and there is another who would help if I had room for her to work, or materials to work upon; for Mitten had been going on no definite plan, & even yet has not decided on the size of paper the plants are to be packed in. I wanted to send to London at once for a stock of such paper as I conceived we wanted, & to get the remainder of the labels printed; but he promises to have all to hand very shortly. My present resolution is not to stir from here — alive or dead — until the mosses are all completed.

[3] The country is still very beautiful — I only wish I had strength to get out and ramble over it. Scarcely a leaf on the trees has changed colour. Grapes have ripened well through all this region round about — in the open air — I buy them at from 1d.⁵ to 4d. the bunch, & they are passably sweet.

I ventured to take the loan of your Railway rug⁶ (I intended to ask you for it every day ^{I saw you,} but forgot) — thinking that it might come in useful on my return, which would probably be speedy. But as that return is postponed sine die [Latin: without the day], I will, if you require the rug, return it, or I will keep it if you will tell one its cost.

Has Destruge⁷ sent you any Myroxylon yet? I am sure he would like to see the Reader⁸ sometimes, should you think it worth while to pay the postage to him.

Yours ever faithfully | Rich^d Spruce [signature]