Category: Moss

Ireland's first Female Botanist

Ellen Hutchins and the Linnean Society

On This Day, 215 years ago, 23rd January 1810, Dawson Turner wrote to Ellen Hutchins starting the process of responding to two letters from her and a parcel recently received. Read the whole letter HERE. The letter helps us see the world of botanical study at Ellen’s time and gives significant information about how Ellen was…
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5th January 1810: On This Day 215 years ago

Ellen Hutchins wrote to Dawson Turner, beginning her letter with: How shall I thank you, my dear Sir, for your kind wish to gratify me by writing as soon as my little parcel arrived, & for the pleasure your letter gave me. Its arrival on New Year’s day I take as a good omen, &…
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‘Send me a moss’

30th November 1814, ‘On This Day’ 210 years ago, Ellen Hutchins wrote to Dawson Turner. This is the last letter of their seven and a half year correspondence. Read the letter HERE   ‘Send me a moss’ Ellen ends poignantly with ‘Send me a moss anything just to look at’. There is no record to show…
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A passion for moss

On this day, 19th April, in 1808, Dawson Turner wrote to Ellen Hutchins. His letter includes a piece of moss – Splachnum ampullaceum – which he calls “a most beautiful plant”. Ellen had written in March that she was “busy preserving mosses, at which I have been employed almost night and day since I got…
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