BOTANY

2pp, 12mo. On the first leaf of bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged (blank second leaf slightly damaged). Folded twice. Recipient not named, but is from the Piffard papers. Good bold signature ‘W. Carruthers’. Reads: ‘Dear Sir / The enclosed specimens are all certainly fish coprolites. / I would have returned them sooner but I was anxious to see Mr Etteridge who I understood from Mr Brody said they were cones. / I have only to-day been able to see him, and hee says that he has no doubt about the these [sic] specimens being Coprolites.’

See Thiselton-Dyer’s entry in the Oxford DNB. Printed on one side of a 10 x 13 cm piece of paper, and made out in manuscript to ‘Sir William Thistleton [sic] Dyer (and Lady)’. Text size in good condition, lightly aged, with the blank reverse of the card with slight damage from mounting. The recipient has written in a close hand in red ink at top left: ‘accepted. / 18. 7. 02.’ The text reads: ‘The Chelsea Physic Garden.

See his entry in the Encylopaedia Britannica. The signature ‘Mirbel’ is written on a clear area of a circular printed device of 4.5 cm diameter, in grey tone, within decorative border. The text reads: ‘MUSEUM / D’HISTOIRE NATURELLE / AU JARDIN DU ROI / Entrée aux Jours et Heures / consacrés à l’Etude. / Prof. Admin.’ Laid down on a 7 x 7.5 cm piece of paper, on which is written, in a neat early nineteenth-century hand, ‘Mirbel the naturalist’. See image.

An attractive collection of chromolithographs, suited to display. The plates are all in good condition, laid down on the aged and sometimes damaged leaves of a small 4to (17 x 21 cm) album with good tight bevelled-edged binding in dark brown cloth, on which an embossed stylized pattern of foliage and two storks is printed in black with the word ‘ALBUM’ on the front cover and blind-stamped on the back cover. The album has an ornate title page, printed in red, with illustration of flowers, branches and a butterfly, together with the word ‘Album’ and publishers’ details.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Large fragments, both with interesting content, from the beginning of letters to unnamed seedsmen (both addressed to ‘Dear Sir’, but the two docketed by different individuals, suggesting different recipients). Neither has the signature present (presumably supplied to autograph hunters for placement in Sinclair’s ‘Hortus gramineus Woburnensis’, described in the ODNB as‘an expensive folio volume containing dried specimens of the grasses’). Both items in good condition, lightly aged, and with creases from having been folded up.

Ticket, 18 x 13cm, very good condition, remnants of laying down on reverse, commencing The President and Council of the Royal Horticultural Society request the pleasure [...] See Image. Sir William Thiselton-Dyer was a leading British botanist, and the third director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bivolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Addressed to ‘Dear Friend’ and signed ‘Thos. Thomson.’ Begins: ‘Having a few moments to spare, I take the opportunity of writing to you. I am sincerely sorry I shall not be back in time to see you before you leave for school, it would have afforded me much pleasure to have cemented our friendship more firmly.’ He likes the medical profession ‘better than any other’, and there is ‘every probability’ of his joining it. He would like to know the recipient’s opinion.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo, with verso paginated 135 and ending ‘FINIS.’ The items are described over forty-five lines. The text is complete and clear, but the laid paper is in a delicate condition, discoloured and with chipping to extremities. The longest title is the first, at ten lines: ‘I. The Practice of Physick, containing seventeen several Books: wherein is plainly set forth, the Nature, Cause, Differences, and several sorts of Signs; together with the Cure of all Diseases in the Body of Man.

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded three times. In order to mark the request as dealt with, the recipient has written a thin ink line across the page. Reads: ‘W J Chadwick Esqre / Sir / Please send me price list of your Teacher’s Patent Lantern Microscope / Yours truly / C. V. Creagh / Governor of North Borneo / Address / Sandakan / North Borneo / via Singapore’.

Note to be confused with the Kew curator William Watson (1858-1925). Both cards are plain: the first with a self-printed stamp and the second with stamp affixed. Both in fair condition, lightly aged. ONE (to Grinling): He identifies the fungi he sent, adding a comment on bacteoles of mallow. Ends in the hope of attending ‘the Epping Forest foray this year’. TWO (to Whitaker). The previous Saturday he noted ‘Pyrus torminalis in the old rough lane between fences nearly opposite the Bull Inn on Shooters Hill (? Jack Wood Lane)’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient is William Bernard Crow, and the work referred to in the letter is his University of London thesis, presumably written under Fritsch’s supervision. 1p, 4to. Aged and creased, with chipping to edges. Folded three times. Good firm signature at foot: ‘F. E. Fritsch’. He thanks him for the copy of his book on “Contributions to the Principles of Morphology”, which he hopes to read ‘when the present rush dies down’. He hopes he is ‘getting on well at Huddersfield’.

An interesting letter from Flemwell, written while working on his 1910 A. and C. Black book ‘Alpine Flowers and Gardens Painted’. In good condition, with envelope carrying Swiss stamps and postmarks, addressed to 'H. Stuart Thompson Esqre. / Forest View; / Vale Rd.; / Upper Parkstone; / Dorset.' 4pp, 12mo. Eight-six lines of text, including pencil postscript.

The letter is addressed to ?Monsieur Le marquis?, and the recipient is undoubtedly Barb?-Marbois. The letter presumably dates from 1829, the year of publication of Barb?-Marbois?s ?Histoire de la Louisiane?. The other work referred to, ?Le Complot d?Arnold et de Sir Henry Clinton contre les Etats-Unis?, was published in 1816.

Two pages, cr. 8vo, fold mark, minor repair to closed tear, text complete and legible. Text: I have no personal knowledge as to the seeding of Snowdrops in this country - the species is a very doubtful native & we are about the northern limit of its distribution. I have grown snowdrops for years but have never noticed seedlings among them & they only grow in the area where I have planted the bulbs. They would take probably several (I can't say how many off hand) years to produce flowering bulbs.

See Goodenough's entry in the Oxford DNB. At the time of writing he had not been long in place: he had been consecrated in the Chapel Royal, Whitehall on 13 February 1808, having been nominated by the Prime Minister the Duke of Portland. The recipient is Rev. Gilbert Ford (1768-1835) of Ormskirk, son of the eminent Chester physician and botanist John Ford (1731-1807). (Ford was possibly related to Goodenough by marriage: the latter's wife was a daughter of Dr James Ford, sometime physician to Middlesex Hospital and to Queen Charlotte.) 2pp, 4to. On bifolium.

According to Duncan's entry in the Oxford DNB, 'In 1809 he founded the Caledonian Horticultural Society, and in later years he was actively occupied in promoting the establishment of a public experimental garden.' 2pp, 4to. In good condition, on aged paper, creased. The recipient is not named, and the letter begins: 'Although I have already often interrupted important business of State, yet I trust you will once more, forgive an Octogenarian, when he can plead, that his principal temptation, to transgression, is an earnest desire to promote the publick good -'.

Frost's eventful career (patronised by royalty and blackballed by the Royal Society) is described in his entry in the Oxford DNB, in which he is described as a 'medical entrepreneur'. The letter is written from the premises in which Frost lived from 1824 to 1830, as Secretary to the Royal Humane Society. The recipient Thomas Gibbs (1771-1849), seedsman and nurseryman, of Ampthill and Brompton Lodge, Old Brompton, was the father of the agriculturalist and horticulturalist Sir Benjamin Thomas Brandreth-Gibbs (1821-1885). See his obituary in the Farmer's Magazine, March 1849. 3pp, 4to. Bifolium.

Two items, both in fair condition, lightly aged and worn, but carelessly extracted from the volume in which they were previously bound up, so that Lindley's letter has suffered slight damage at the edge of both leaves, resulting in repair to one of the leaves, and the loss of a tiny strip of paper from the other, with the loss of a few letters of text (all easily supplied). ONE: Autograph Letter Signed from 'John Lindley | Vice Secretary' to 'John Hearne Esq | St. Domingo'. The letter begins: 'I am directed to transmit to you the Copy of a letter [i.e.

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with a two fold lines. Ornamented engraved letterhead. Reads: 'Dr Lindley presents his Compts to Major Abby & begs to inform him that there are no such birds as he enquires for in the Garden of the Horticultural Society, nor has there ever been. There is only a couple of gulls & a duck, which were presented by the Zoological Society'.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. The recipient is not named. Grindon's handwriting is difficult and the reading is in parts tentative. The letter begins with a references to 'The Secretary of our “Manchester Field-Naturalists' Society', who appears to have placed a communication from the recipient in Grindon's hands. Grindon agrees to bring the matter 'very distinctly before our members', but explains that there are difficulties. 'Our members reside, almost wholly, in the town, or, if a few miles away, they come into town by train by 9 a.m. Or so, & remain till eve.

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. He refers him to 'the Post Office Directory' for a 'list of our scientific staff', and to 'the Official Guide which is on sale at all the Gates' for 'the principal facts as to the objects etc. of the Establishment', and concludes: 'The other information you ask for is embodied in our annual report which is not at present issued'.

12pp., 12mo. On three bifoliums. In good condition, lightly aged. A long speculation - of great interest in the light of subsequent developments - on 'the connection between Vegetation & Climate', beginning with a discussion of 'the case of the Hawthorn'. 'The whole subject', he notes, 'at present is in its infancy and there are so many varied questions for wh. we seek answers that at present I do not think we can state any certain conclusions. | Botanically, the constitution of each species is an interesting source of investigation.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on aged and creased paper. Begins: 'By some strange, almost unaccountable, accident, the plates of my last paper in the Linnaean Transactions, accompanied by your kind favour of yr chromatic scale, have just found their way to my hands, tho' they have been some weeks in my house.' He asks what he is 'indebted for these plates', so that he may pay this and the 'subscription for your book on colors'. He describes specimens he is sending 'for English Botany', 'which you will be glad to figure.

One page, 12mo, small corner missing with loss of short word (unknown), mainly good condition. "Je recois a l'instant quelques grains toutes fraiches de Charleston et je [m'empresse?] de vous en faire [passer?] une parties. J'ignore si vous avez recu les paquets [?] que je vous ai adresses il y a deja quelques [temps?]". Postscipti (corner lost), "il [leur ...?] de la terre de [possibly loss of short word] Bruyere , legere, du frais et le [word lost?] l[ombre?]."

The three items in fair condition, with light signs of age and wear. ONE: From Rea, 4 June 1902. 1p., 8vo. On WNC letterhead, amended by Rea with his Foregate Street address. Requesting permission to view Harington's 'historic mansion on Thursday the 12th. June next: The Club will on that day walk down from Ham Bridge via Tedney & expect to be near Whitbourne Court between 4.30 & 5 o'clock They desire only to see the historic portion of the buildings & to in no way intrude on Sir Richard Harington's privacy'. TWO: From Rea, 6 June 1902. From Foregate Street. 1p., 12mo.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. He will have 'much pleasure in breaking our stones o'er again on Thursday', and will 'try & bring some sections with me - several specimens are in the lapidary's hands'. He ends by asking for confirmation of the hour at which he should call on him.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. He begins by stating that he has of late found the act of writing almost impossible, but that when he goes into his garden, 'there are various things determined that you should not be forgotten; above all those beautiful white Turks' Cap lilies'. He has not been able to enter his garden, and now realises 'that old Charon is in the offing with that low, flat boat of his, ready to convey me, not entirely unwilling, to the other side.

The ten letters total 4pp., landscape 8vo, and 6pp., 4to. The collection in good condition, lightly aged and worn. With stamps and annotations of the Royal Society of Arts. The correspondence relates to a lecture given by him by invitation, and its subsequent publication in the Society's journal. He originally suggests that it be titled 'The Application of Science to economic purposes, with illustrations from the Cotton Trade', thinking that it would 'attract people outside cotton circles', but is persuaded to alter this to 'Examples of Applied Science in the Cotton Industry'.

On an irregular slip of paper, laid down on a landscape 12mo leaf. In very good condition, with light signs of age and wear. Beneath Schouw's signature, in an early nineteenth-century hand: 'Joachim Frédéric Schouw, célèbre botaniste, président de la chambre des députés, né 1789.' To the right of the signature and inscription is a simple line portrait of Schouw's head and shoulders, in the same hand as the French inscription.

1p., 8vo. In fair condition, on aged grey paper, laid down on paper mount, and slighty discoloured by glue used. He apologises for being unable to provide him with the desired order, 'but on any particular day you may require one I shall be glad to assist you as far as I can'. He suggests that they speak 'after lecture'. In a contemporary hand, written at foot of mount: 'Professor Robert Bentley F.L.S. (Professor of Botany) Author | born 1821.'