Hugh Davies to Thomas Pennant

10 August 1795

ID: 1313 [see the .xml file]
Identifier: WCRO CR 2017/TP20/21
Previous letter: 1312
Next letter: 1314
Cite: 'Hugh Davies to Thomas Pennant 10 August 1795' in Curious Travellers Digital Editions [editions.curioustravellers.ac.uk/doc/1313]
Letter

Dear Sir,

I truly rejoice at the account you gave of yourself; I by no means intended you should yourself have taken any trouble about Ellis Richardson; and I wish he knew I should be sorry he should sell his Cow solely on my account; I had rather suffer a little myself than distress a fellow-creature, particularly at such a time as this –

I dined with Mr. Panton about ten days ago, he was in good spirits, and looked much better than, from report, I expected to have seen him.

I request you will not think me peevish, for I really am not; you will gain Mr. Dickinson 14 no credit in saying that he pointed out to you as rare plants Anthoxanthum odoratum,15 Cynosurus cristatus 16 & Festuca ovina;17 they and the remainder of your list of Augt. 2d, together with those contained in your P.S. of Augt. 7th. are exceedingly common, and all of rather inferior rank in respect of utility: I shall indeed except Cistus hirsutus 18 and Trifol: flexuosum 19 as a plant I do not know. (See the other page)

Loth to put you to the expence of a double letter by transcrible [sic] both your lists; I shall however return your own memorandum, when I have an opportunity to inclose.

I beg my respects to Mrs. Pennant and am

Dear Sir
your most obliged &
Obedt. Servt.

Hugh Davies.

Aber
Augt. 10th. 1795.

P.S.
A Catalogue of the Birds & Plants of Priestholm Isle is on your return. –

Enclosure

  • List of Augt. 2d.
  • rare{
  • not rare{
  • List – P.S. of Augt. 7th
  • he refers to Roth: Flor. Germ. 1. p. 314. and to no other author.
  • Cistus hirsutus
  • Anthoxanthum odoratum
  • Cynosurus cristatus
  • Festuca ovina1
  • Plantago lanceolata2
  • Lotus corniculatus3
  • Trifolium repens4
  • Polygala vulgaris 5
  • Poterium sanguisorba6
  • Agrostis canina7
  • _________ stolonifera8
  • Avena flavescens9
  • Festuca duriuscula10
  • Trifolium flexuosum – Gmel Syst. Nat. 11 p. 1142.

As far as I can judge, all you can say of the above grasses is that Mr. Dickinson pointed those species out as chiefly constituting the herbage of your lofty commons, although I suspect it an imperfect list, and that there must be several other species of Grass, and, I doubt not some species of Juneus 12 and Carex 13 besides other plants.

Stamp: (handstamp) BANGOR

Thomas Pennant Esqr.
Downing
Holywell
Flintshire

Editorial notes
1. For the 'Cistus hirsutus', 'Anthoxanthum odoratum', 'Cynosurus cristatus', and 'Festuca ovina', see the text of the main letter and accompanying notes.
2. 'Plantago lanceolata', ribbed grass. OED s.v. ribbed grass.
3. See T. Martyn, translating J.-J Rousseau (1785), where 'The wild species [=Lotus corniculatus]' is named 'common Bird's-foot Trefoil'. OED s.v. bird's-foot, bird-foot.
4. 'Trifolium repens', white clover. OED s.v. honeysuckle.
5. 'Polygala vulgaris', rogation flower or the common milkwort, which was 'formerly made into garlands and carried in processions on Rogation Days'. OED s.v. rogation.
6. 'Poterium Sanguisorba', the common burnet or salad burnet, from its use in salads. OED s.v. salad, salad burnet.
7. See OED s.v. bent, bent-grass, which quotes Lightfoot, Flora Scotica (1778) I, p. 93, 'Agrostis canina, Brown Bent-grass'.
8. 'Agrostis stolonifera', marsh bent-grass or creeping bent-grass, a variant of 'stolonifera' but much taller and not matting to form a turf. OED s.v. marsh, n.1, marsh bent.
9. 'Avena flavescens', golden oat, or yellow oat-grass. OED s.v. yellow, yellow oat grass.
10. For images of specimens of the 'Festuca duriuscula', several collected in Switzerland, see here [external link], items 7–16 [accessed 12 August 2019].
11. For the reference to 'Trifolium flexuosum', see Alberti Gvilielmi Rothii, Tentamen florae Germanicae. Tomvs I. (Lipsiae, I. G. Mülleriano, 1788), p. 314.
12. 'Junius' is a species of rush. See Atlas of Hawai'i (3rd edn., Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1998), p. 113.
13. 'Carex', a large genus of grassy-looking plants. OED s.v. carex.
14. A list headed 'Plants collected by S. Dickinson July 21st. 1795' mentions several of the plants named in this letter from Hugh Davies to Pennant, including in a category deemed 'Rare', the 'Cistus hirsutus', underneath which Pennant has noted in pencil a location of its growth known to him, 'Pen y Gelli'. CR2017/TP213/5.
15. 'Anthoxanthum odoratum', spring grass. OED s.v. spring grass.
16. 'Cynosurus cristatus', dog's-tail grass. OED s.v. dog grass.
17. 'Festuca ovina', listed as a 'social' plant on account of its growth in clumps, patches or masses with other members of its species. It has been identified with 'coquioule' and possibly 'haver-grasse' [haver grass]. OED s.v. social; cockle, n.1.
18. For the 'Cistus hirsutus' see see here [external link] [accessed 12 August 2019]. Hugh Davies pointed out an example to Pennant on Din Sylwy in Anglesey. See A tour in Wales 1770 [1773] (1778), II, p. 254.
19. For an essay on the 'Trifolium alpestre', which names the 'Trifol. flexuosum' as a discovery of Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, see Adam Afzelius, 'The Botanical History of Trifolium alpestre, medium, and pratense', Transactions of the Linnean Society, I (1790), 202–248, esp. 210.