Transcript
Nov[embe]r 23/[18]93
THE CAMP,
SUNNINGDALE.
Dear Mr Ellacombe*1
You are indeed bountiful in your offer. Except Bocconia & Aster Nov. Agt[?], Epimideri[?] alpini & Doronicia[?], I have not a single thing that you offer.
I have no garden proper of plants. only a lot of unnamed[?] miscellanies. My Gardener does not understand Horticulture proper, & any attempt to Keep names is hopeless: -- in my light soil Especially they tumble about recklessly. so pray do not trouble to name. The fact is that what with establishing a viable[?] Garden & laying out a very
Nov[embe]r 23/[18]93
THE CAMP,
SUNNINGDALE.
Dear Mr Ellacombe*1
You are indeed bountiful in your offer. Except Bocconia & Aster Nov. Agt[?], Epimideri[?] alpini & Doronicia[?], I have not a single thing that you offer.
I have no garden proper of plants. only a lot of unnamed[?] miscellanies. My Gardener does not understand Horticulture proper, & any attempt to Keep names is hopeless: -- in my light soil Especially they tumble about recklessly. so pray do not trouble to name. The fact is that what with establishing a viable[?] Garden & laying out a very
wild piece[?] of 10 acres with paths & Plantations of Shrubs & Trees I have had my hands full & pockets emptied year by year hitherto. Then too my time is wholly occupied with Bot[anical]. Mag[azine] & Fl[ora]. Brit[ish]. Ind[ia], & the Index of blessed memory so that I often do not get into the garden for days at a time. All I want is some little [1 word illeg.] of the herbaceous plants than th what one sees in every garden.
So whatever you kindly do, bear the above in mind -- half of what you offer would be abundance.
Rodgersia will be a prize. Kew has promised me Saxifraga pellata.
I have hitherto failed with Gentiana acaulis[?] -- as with "Christmas Rose" from want of a stiff soil. -- a neighbour, whose Garden is in old brickfield, grows it luxuriously.
Gentian Forteri[?] was always very rare in cultivation -- I have not seen it for long. Ware[?] may have it, but I doubt it. Ask Wilson
I fear that Bowman's Garden is not kept up. What a grave of rare plants in England! -- I will ask Balfour when next I write to him.
Herewith citations of Beatus for Linnaeus' [1 word illeg.] in one volume!
I never heard Linnaeus' Latin called in question, on the contrary I have always heard it praised.
A few seeds of the Citrus will be very acceptable. The plant was a
favourite at Kew, & I believe I was the first to prove its hardyness at Kew -- many years ago --
Ev[e]r sin[cerel]y y[our]s | J. D. Hooker [signature]
1. Henry Nicholson Ellacombe (1822-1916), a Church of England clergyman, gardener and author who continued the legacy of his father in succeeding him as Reverend of Bitton in 1850 and inherited the garden that his father established. Ellacombe frequently corresponded with leading horticulturalists including the Hookers at Kew, and often exchanged specimens with these horticulturalists.
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