WCP6349

[1]¹

Hurstpierpoint

[Sussex]

9^th. Aug[us]^t.1896

My dear Daughter²,

I had the box with the flowers in very good condition by the first post on Saturday morning and your welcome note in the evening. What a scramble you have had to get it through to your destination. It is tantalising to read of your rain up to today[.] [W]e have had none but this day Sunday it has been slight showers off and on so that it will not do to go out walking[.] I got all the plants into pots as soon as possible and I think they will all grow except the bit of Dryas³ which never does so far as I have tried it. The White Campanula⁴ is a state[?] I did not get, there was something like it at Meiringen⁵; but I did not make it grow, it was blue flowered. I think the anemone you have heard of on the higher ground is A[nemone]. vernalis[.] [I]t is like pulsatilla⁶ [sic] but flower[s] upright white inside and coloured outside[.] I have a good potful [sic] of it[.] I think I have been told it is not easy to flower it in cultivation[.] [I]ts leaves are smaller than a pulsatilla [sic] and more like some buttercup: the other like our wood anemone is probably A[nemone]. Baldensis [sic] which was in seed at Zermat[t]⁷ — a little white close balls[.] [sic] I tried it but none came up but then I did not sow as I should have done as soon as I got home[.] I could not get a root which may be as in our wood species, there was another about Zermat[t] [which] seemed to come up close to a stone[.] [2] I only saw the leaves they were like pulsatilla [sic] but larger[.] [I] could not get the root: it might have been A[nemone]. Halleri [sic] which is said to grow there.

The willow herb — Epilobium Fleischeri [sic] is the same as the Meiringen one[.] I expect it varies a good deal from what I read[.] [T]here are two species which appear to be so similar that there is no distinction in the descriptions except that the anthers and pistil are of equal length in E[pilobium]. Dodonaei [sic] whilst in the one you sent the pistil is shorter. They are both said to grow in the same places, most likely there is some other difference in appearance when you know them: but these things cannot [be] put down in descriptions, so far as I can recollect the species I saw about the Rhone Glacier⁸ was taller but not better flowered. I have today sown some seed of the plant I brought from Interlachen⁹ [sic]. The orange flowered Dandilion¹⁰ [sic] is different from those I brought home[.] [M]ine were true Dandelions but yours is not and they seem to be Leontodon pyrenaicus var[iety] [.] croceus[.]¹¹ [A]s soon as the seeds ripen I will try and make sure about it — these Dandelion[-]like plants are very numerous and I want to get better knowledge of them[.] [T]here are many more described from the Alps which I do not know so if you see anything in that way you do not know save a seed head. I have planted a little bit of the fine Forget[-]me[-]not[.]¹² [I]t has a sprout from the base, the taller species are I think like one we have here about peat bogs; but I am not sure, it will grow, and can be compared.

[3]

I have never seen such a fine Cystopteris¹³ as the large one you sent good roots of. I have made three plants of it[.] [T]he smaller plants are also all cystopteris [sic] so far as I can see[.] Woodsia’s¹⁴ [sic] are a little downy. The orange flowered Saxifrage is S[axifraga]. aizoides[.] Rose¹⁵ brought some roots[.] [I]t does not do well with me [it] seems to want the humid air it has in its native localities[.] The butterfly orchis¹⁶ is in some water giving out its perfume as I write. The little Veronica¹⁷ is I think the bright blue one which I have not grown. M^rs. [1 word illeg.] had it and flowered it but I think I understood it to be difficult to cultivate. I hope you will have a fair share of fine weather and be able to get about[.] I will post to you tomorrow a Newspaper of some kind to help you through a wet time if you have to endure it.

We are all well and Aunt Sally and Lizzy are here, came on Friday. The first chapter of our new burial ground is closed; the council decline to give the Rector a thousand pounds for an acre of land when they can have the same quantity in the North part of the parish for two hundred and a wall round it [is] not required so we shall see[.] I hope they will take the ground offered as it is quite away from houses near which in these enlightened days we should not have burial grounds. The votes in the council were eight to two against the field behind our house.

I had almost forgotten the fine Cystopteris Montana [sic] [.] I have put it all into one pot to keep it wet.

[4]

There was at Wengern [sic] a pretty little Equisetum¹⁸ like a minature [sic] pine tree just as I had made[.] [T]he bit I brought away [1 word illeg.] to grow [but] something made a meal of it. If you see Hidysarum observum a sort of Vetch with purplish pen[-]like flowers on slender stems sprawling on banks near rivulets get some seed if possible[.] I brought bits of root which did not grow and Rose also did the same with I fear the same result.

Ma¹⁹ desires me to say you are to take care and not get wet footed and carry your eyes about carefully[.] [W]ith [1 word illeg.] love

Your affectionate Pa | William Mitten²⁰ [signature]