1820-1829

William Carey, Serampore, to John Shepherd, Curator of the Botanical Gardens, Liverpool, 29 Jan. 1820.

My Dear Sir,

         By the Princess Charlotte, Capt M.c [Hern?] I have the pleasure of sending you a Box of plants of which I enclose a list. I have tried a new method with some of them, and shall be happy to hear how it succeeds. I planted them in the Box, about two months before the dispatch, during that time I allowed them but little water that they might be brought as nearly as possible to the to the state of winter, I then filled up the Box with other plants, wrapped in moss or straw, and bent down the planted ones over them. I cannot tell whether this will succeed better than your method, but make the trial.

         I wrote you word of the excellent state in which your last dispatch arrived, I am sorry however to say that not above four or five of the plants could be preserved; This makes me doubt whether shrubby plants can be transported so far with much hope of success. Of your former dispatch almost all the plants are doing well but they were plants of a different kind. I have no doubt but perennial plants with thick roots, or which grow in large tufts will come in good preservation, in the way you send them, as will all sorts of bulbs. It is the best way to send seeds of those plants which produce them. This I will do to you, and we must persevere in attempts to transport the other kinds till we finally succeed.

         I have raised many valuable plants from the seeds you so kindly sent me; and one circumstance makes me think of another method which may be worth trial. I suppose that almost as many species of plants as you sent, have sprung up spontaneously from the earth in which the plants were sent, from which I conclude that if bog or peet soil were mixed with as many seeds as one third of its bulk and nailed up in the manner you nail up your plants; and a list of the seeds sent, a greater proportion would grow then in any other way, I could spell out the plants when they come up. any small bulbs or [tubes?] mixed among them might also succeed. I have a good number of ferns sprung up from your earth. some Galiums, and scabioses, with many other plants.

         By desire of Loddiges & Sons Hackney I sent them seeds packed in that way, which they inform me succeeded remarkably well. I think I sent you a Box packed in the same manner. I shall be glad to hear how they succeeded.

         You can scarcely send me plants which are not new. I am particularly desirous to obtain bulbus plants and herbaceous ones or such as die down in winter, and shoot up again in the spring. You have furnished me with a good number of Irises, I still however want Pseudoacorus. —verna. —cristata. —ensata. —ventricosa. —stylosa. —Putescens. —flavissima.—anemia. —plicata. —Swertia. —gerania. —susianapersica. —tuberosa. —lusitanica. —mauritiana. —juncus.—alata.—scopioides, and Ruthenica. Irises come up well from seeds if they are new. I want all the Maricas [Myricas] except paludosa. All the Trolliums. Colchicums. Anemones. Erythroniums, Tulips. — Hyacinths.—Of Bromalia we have only—ananas and karattas. All the Pittisimmas you sent are flourishing well. I still want—media.—bractiata.—and integrifolia. There is no Tillandsia in India. All the Massonias are wanting with us, as is also the Snow drop. Of Narcissus I still am desirous of obtaining—poeticus.—angustifolius.—Pseudo Narcissus. Sibthorpia.—bicoler.—exignus.—moschatus.—nutens.—solatus, and inflatus. Of Pencratiums I want Mexicanum.—carolinianus.—verecundum, and calathinum. Of Amaryllis I require reticulata,— bivaginato.—advena.—corusca.—and stellaris. Bulbocodium [illegible word] is not in India. nor are any of the species of Uvularia, or Smilacina— Convallaria majalis, — verticillata.—latifolia. and bifolia are not yet in our collections nearly all the Lilies are wanting, and all the Fritillaries

         I fear succulent plants can scarcely be sent so far, or I should beg some of them particularly Aloes, and the Custus flagella fennis. Seeds of Mesembryanthemum, and particularly of Pelargoniums, Fuchsias.—Ostens, Solidago, Cineraria, Coreopsis and Achilleas will be peculiarly acceptable.

         Be informed, My Dear Sir, I shall use every effort to convey to you all that I can send either by seeds or in any other way.

                                             I am, very truly yours

                                                                                 W. Carey

Serampore

29.th Jan.y 1820

Text: Eng. MS. 374, f. 361b, JRULM. The above letter was postmarked from Calcutta General Post Office, 20 February 1820. John Shepherd (1764-1836), Curator of the Liverpool Botanic Gardens, 1802-36, and correspondent of William Carey. Conrad Loddige & Sons operated a large nursery in Mare Street, Hackney. Loddige opened his first nursery in Hackney in 1787; by 1842, William Robinson, a Hackney antiquarian, would declare that Loddige’s nursery represented “the finest display of exotics ever collected in this country.” See Pigot and Co.'s London & Provincial New Commercial Directory for 1827-8 (London: J. Pigot, [1827]), 187; William Robinson, The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Hackney, in the County of Middlesex, 2 vols. (London: John Bowyer Nichols and Son, W. Pickering, and Caleb Turner, 1842-43), 1: 90, 91.