Croft.
Septr 10th 1816.
I feel sorry, Dear Sir, that you confine your collection, for the present, to mosses, – as it will deprive me of the little hopes I had entertained of being serviceable to you. A man in the hands of Hooker <1> need hardly look to any other source – for he & his Father-in-law, Dawson Turner, <2> are liberality personified. I am fully aware that yr present situation is much better calculated for the pursuit of Greek & Latin, than for Botany. A Lime-stone country I have ever found, of all others, the most unproductive. When spring is past, the few mosses to be found are also dried up & lost. Galium mollugo – Pastinaca sativa – Reseda lutea; – with Caucalis daucoides, & two or three of the rarer Antirrhina, are the best plants I ever found in your neighbourhood; – & most of those nearer to Thorp Arch than to Pontefract.
I do not consider C. binervis or distans as varieties of C. fulva: <3> – but all want more intelligible descriptive marks than have hitherto been given to them. When I have the pleasure of seeing you here, I will lay my specimens of each before you, & shall be glad of yr assistance in the prevention of future mistakes upon the subject. I have been a sad truant from Botany for some years; – but my love for & gratitude to the study are undiminished. I never saw Daphne mezerium wild – but D. laureola is abundant in hedges near Aberford. Wishing you success, Dear Sir, in all your pursuits, I beg leave to subscribe myself
very sincerely yr friend
James Dalton.
W. H. F. Talbot Esqre
Castleford
Ferry-bridge
Notes:
1. Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785–1865), Prof & botanist.
2. Dawson Turner (1775–1858), botanist, author & banker.
3. See Doc. No: 00709.