WCP5610

[1]

Hurstpierpoint, Sussex.¹

June 25, 1865.

My dear Hanbury /

The 4 Vols. of Kunth's² Synopsis³ are surely dog-cheap — they are worth having if only to serve as a complete index of all Humboldt's⁴ plants.

Did you get the book De distributione geographica &c.[Latin: About the geographical distribution]⁵ — it was only 4/-

In the catalogue of N. American books you previously sent, I found the one whose heading I pre-pend⁶ to this letter. The author⁷, a very clever, shrewd, & somewhat eccentric Yankee physician, was U. S. Consul at Payta [Paita, Peru], where he gave me a copy of his Cosmography⁸, and also sundry bottles of his Sarsap[arilla]. + Gent[ian]. and told me what I wanted was "Rest — Rest — but, above all, to laugh some every day!"

Many thanks for the Daily News.⁹ I hope you have been to see Church's¹⁰ famous paintings, which are surely superior to those of Mignot¹¹

[2] I was much interested by the review of Lecky's¹² Progress of Rationalism¹³ — I suppose you may have read the work itself.

I have been pretty well since I came here, except for disordered bowels, which may arise from the heat & drought, but chiefly I believe from breathing the effluvium of dung-hills and dung-holes, such as exist in every garden by the side of the choicest flowers. I recollect being shocked 20 years ago with the admixture of sweet and vile odours in a Sussex village — much to the diversion of Mr. Borrer,¹⁴ to whom I was then on a visit. I am decidedly better on the cool days, b and could have liked to get to the hills for a short time this summer, but I find so much more work awaiting me than I had calculated on, that I fear there is no getting away from it.

I told you in my last that I was about to try my hand on the Lichens; but when I began to enquire into what progress had been made with the entire cryptogamic¹⁵ collection, I found that the Hepaticae were still altogether untouched, & they are as numerous in species as the Mosses and [3] their determination entails a vast deal of minute work. At the rate of progress hitherto made, it must take 3 or 4 years more to name & distribute the collection. Seeing this I wrote to ask Leighton¹⁶ to help me with the Lichens. He has consented, and offers to make up & distribute the sets at once, and name them afterwards, which will suit me very well. May I therefore trouble you to have printed 5000 Labels with the heading

SPRUCE _ LICHENES AMAZONICI et ANDINI

No.

and forward them to the

Rev. W. A. Leighton

Luciefelde near

Shrewsbury.

____________________

Pray do not get any more Moss-Labels printed until further notice from me.

I have set to work myself on the Hepaticae & if I find I am likely to break down under the task, I must try to get some one to aid me. I am familiar enough with the tribe, but want of physical strength & especially the pain in the right eye are great drawbacks. Had I known what there was to be done a month earlier, I think [4] I should have gone straight off to Hamburgh[sic] with them, where I should have had excellent aid from Dr. Gotteshe¹⁷ of Altona.¹⁸

As to the Mosses, Mitten¹⁹ has had them in his hands nearly two years & a half, & during that time has transferred the best specimens of everything to his own herbarium, & has studied them mostly likely sufficiently to be able to shine upon them some day; but the work of making up sets is barely begun, and many of the specimens have got sorely tossed about & maltreated. Moreover, my MSS. notes on those mosses were also put into his hands, containing minute analyses of a great many of the most striking species — especially of those that seemed typical of new groups — in all above 250 species, to most of which I had put names. The only stipulation I made with Mitten when I put collection & MSS. into his hands was that he should preserve my names wherever practicable; but he has never given any but shuffling²⁰ answers when questioned about the matter, and I find now that he has quashed every one of my names & substituted others of his own, evidently awaiting my dying off, so he might be able to take all the credit to himself, & perhaps, if he mentioned my MSS. names at all, quote them as synonyms with some depreciatory remark tagged on to them.

[5] That was the way he did with Wilson's²¹ MSS. names in the Indian Mosses, as you may see by referring to his account of them in [the] Linn[ean]. Journ[al]. Suppl[ement].,²² and has thus (I find) disgusted everybody who takes an interest in the subject.

Little as I esteem mere species-mongering it is annoying to find the man to whom I had entrusted my fair fame, trying to rob me of the little of it that could accrue to me. And this tribe of the Mosses is one of which I have made an especial study, & have collected in S. America more systematically than anyone ever did before. I think my only remedy is that, as Mitten has ignored my names, I ought equally to ignore his; & when he presents his account of my Mosses to the Linn[ean]. Journal Society, to be ready also with one of my own, & to protest publicke²³ against such a way of treating the man who has risked his life times without number & wasted the best years of his life in catering for the pleasure & the fame of others.

Excuse my troubling you with this matter

& believe me | Ever truly yours | Rich^d Spruce. [signature]

D[aniel]. Hanbury Esq.