‘Pray send more’

On This Day, 215 years ago, 28th January 1810, Dawson Turner wrote again to Ellen Hutchins. Read the letter HERE.This was an unusually short letter, with its main purpose being the list it contained, giving Dawson Turner’s opinions on specimens of lichens sent to him by Ellen. He was not able to name all the specimens. For some, of both those named and not named, he asked Ellen to “pray send more”.

One of these is Cladonia foliacea, pictured above. The photograph, taken at Skellig Michael, was kindly sent to me by leading Irish lichenologist, Paul Whelan.

At home among the lichens?

Dawson Turner wrote: “I am not at home as I wish to be, among the Lichens, & there are two families, particularly, in this vast tribe, the gelatinous ones & the Baeomycides [Cladoniaceae], that nobody understands as they should do. These, therefore, I recommend to your special care; they are very beautiful & very interesting”

The Baeomycides that are listed in the letter have been renamed Cladonia. There are wonderful photographs on Paul Whelan’s website. The ones of Ellen’s that Dawson Turner was commenting on and that you can see on the Cladonia page are: C. foliacea, gracilis, macilenta, subulata, and unicalis. HERE.

An excellent country

Dawson Turner continued: “& you seem to live in an excellent country for them.” I often say that Bantry Bay is the co-star in Ellen’s story, as it had, and indeed still has, 215 years later, such a wide range of habitats and great botanical wealth. Coupled with the fact that it was then still so remote and difficult to reach, which meant that other botanists had not explored it, meaning that there were treasures to be found by a skilled and observant, resident botanist.

At the same time

In his last letter, of 23rd January, Dawson Turner had shown Ellen the high esteem he held her in and here he displays this again: “I should like of all things to have you studying them at the same time as I do, that we may compare our observations together.”

A drawing

He also valued Ellen’s ability to produce highly detailed and accurate drawings. The seaweed that he asked Ellen to draw for him for use in his book, Historia Fucorum, was Fucus loreus, now called Himanthali elongata and also known as thong weed, sea thong or sea spaghetti.

I will show the drawing Ellen made later in the year (1810 and 2025).

Lichens that nobody understands

If you would like to understand lichens better, I recommend as a first step, the Ellen Hutchins website page, Learning to Love Lichens.

The Ellen Hutchins Festival works closely with Paul Whelan. Paul is running a free session on lichens for families and adults at the Open Day at the Ellen Hutchins Reading Room, Environmental Research Institute of UCC, on Lee Road in Cork, Saturday 8th February 2025, 10:30am to 12:30pm. Drop in or stay. See HERE.

Paul is author of the recently published two volume Lichens of Ireland and Britain: a visual guide to their identification. HERE

Read the letter from 28th January 1810 HERE. The next letter in the correspondence is from Ellen to Dawson Turner on 20th February. It will feature in a post on 20th February 2025.

The image below is of lichens including Pixie Cups on a doorstep at Ardnagashel, near Ballylickey and Bantry, West Cork. Ellen died at Ardnagashel on 9th February 1815, 210 years.

I will be at the Open Day in Cork, an occasion to mark the anniversary of Ellen’s death and to celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. See HERE.

Madeline Hutchins

Researcher on Ellen, and her great-great-grandniece

28th January 2025