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Correspondence of Rhoda Waterbury and
G. W. Clinton |
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Correspondence of Rhoda Waterbury and G. W. Clinton 1865 - 1867 Edited
by P. M. P.O. Box 299, September 1865 Vol.
1. No. 145 [I 67] Schoharie Sept. 6th, 1865 My
dear friend, A
sad! sad! misfortune
happened to your last letter. Could it possibly have been in your pocket when
you took the drenching you spoke of? I was so disappointed I think the plant Sp[urgiola?] must have been
[too] damp otherwise the whole must have fallen into water somehow, it was
quite glued together and an unsightly mass of green, from the action of water
the ink of the letter has spread but I have been able to read every word, I
think, and I am so glad you are coming next summer. Now don’t think me
foolish but I have got it all planned and to meet you at the depot myself and
you know having never seen you I may make a mistake unless I have your
photograph to become acquainted with; there do you call me a woman’s
curiosity! you will say; but I do not think it is
that alone. I have learned to like you very much for you must know it is not
every one who sympathizes with me in my studies, and have I not a claim to
the face of all my friends? I
spent the last week in Rensselaerville, Albany Co.,
and collected a great many mosses but very few other things. I have sent a
package to Mr. Peck two days in succession and have still others. I want to
become so familiar with the mosses this year that next summer I can determine
them without so much study and take up the grasses & sedges thoroughly,
you see how little I know. The plant Eleocharis has
no rootstock “densely tufted from fibrous roots” I think and I
send you as large a one as I have found, it grows among the stones in the bed
of Foxes Creek as the stream is almost dried for two thirds its width at this
season, unless we have a rainy summer, you know these mountain streams are
tremendous torrents in spring and fall and this one carries off mills and
houses often but in summer the plants grow among the large stones in its bed
with perfect security. Can you spare me another specimen of the fresh water
Spurge? I shall have another list of mosses to send you in my next as Mr.
Peck is now in As
ever your disciple Rhoda Waterbury Hon.
G. W. Clinton Recd.
Sept. 9 On September 1 of 1865, There is a specimen of Eleocharis
intermedia Schultes in
the Clinton Herbarium (BUF) (see introduction above). Fegatella conica Corda
= Marchantia conica L. = Conocephalum conicum (L.) Lindb.,
a liverwort (Hepatica). Foxes Creek in Rhoda’s reference to Foxes Creek puts
one in mind of Emily Dickinson’s poem: XXVII Have you got a brook in your little heart, Where bashful flowers blow, And blushing birds go down to drink, And shadows tremble so? And nobody knows, so still it flows, That any brook is there; And yet your little draught of life Is daily drunken there. Then look out for the little brook in March, When the rivers overflow, And the snows come hurrying from the hills, And the bridges often go. And later, in August it may be, When the meadows parching lie, Beware, lest this little brook of life Some burning noon go dry! --Emily Dickinson Vol.
1. No. 162 [I 47] Schoharie,
Sept. 16th, 1865 My
Dear Kind Friend, I
am sure you are overdoing “two thirds sick and very busy” ought never
to go together. Do you know I always feel sorry for you when you are obliged
to be in court. I think it must be terrible to be a
Judge and listen all day to the unraveling of tangled things such as I always
fancy they have in courts, and then so when you are so fond of the open air.
I don’t wonder you are almost sick; and I feel ashamed of myself that I
have expected a word from you every week with all your other labors, and this
week two packets of plants and a real good letter! If I really thought it
would rest you I would rattle on all the afternoon to you and tell you all
about how glad I am that you don’t dislike old maids, and how very easy
and agreeable for them to like you and what a nice ramble I had yesterday to
the head of the purest mountain spring you ever saw coming out under rocks
forty feet high and how I got a new moss, and two new ferns, and a liverwort,
and a creek weed, all of which I know but little about, and how Mr. Peck sent
me a new moss, new entirely to this country and how rich I am with what has
come to me this week, and how sure I am that “man does not live by
bread alone” and how glad I am that Dr. Lambert says “a rose is
as practical as a cabbage” and how I think it is more so. How I would
like to entertain you when you are tired and don’t want to think or
sleep, my friends say I am capital at it as I never talk two minutes of the
same thing and one need not attempt to think but deliver themselves up and be
amused though I do assure you I observe very close connection in my own mind.
But I must leave space to tell you about my plants. I have another rare moss
that Mr. P. wanted all I could spare but I saved just a stem or so for you
and I send it, Climacium dendroides,
then I send the creek weed. I will not pretend to
name it, and two ferns that seem like Allosorus atropurpureus & A. acrostichoides
though I may mistake, they are new to me. The Fegatella
Mr. P. decided as you did, his reached me just one mail first, he also sent
specimens in fruit, so now I know Fegatella thoroughly,
but I have another liverwort I found on the rocks yesterday, it adheres so
closely to the light soil on the horizontal face of the rocks that I can not
examine it well. I will send specimens if I can separate it. Don’t you
think this little fern is a real beauty? As pretty as a moss, how it delights
me to find such things, do you think, I would exchange them for gold? (the delight I mean of course). My friends say sometimes I
am not practical in my pursuits, I know you do not think so, and when I tell
you there has been but two weeks since Jan last in which I have not heard
some recitations and for five months for eight hours a day most of the time,
you will agree with me that I need the open air and other food than bread.
But I am taking life very easy now only three recitations a week at present
and the open air almost as much as I please and I do hope your court is
finished for it is a pity to waste such beautiful days in a court room, and
you know I am selfish. I don’t want you to be so busy that I cannot
wish to hear from you without feeling guilty. Shall I tell you a secret? I am
a Hydropathist, four years ago I spent five months under treatment at Clifton
Water Cure trying to preserve what seemed to me then a valueless life, and
the result has been I am a thorough Water-Cure-ite,
quite a healthy old maid, and weigh 140 lbs, now are
you not shocked? You
see I want you to try water when you feel sick, or two thirds sick. Is it not
astonishing that I should write such foolish things in a botanical letter
instead of recommending herbs? I fear you will take me for a silly girl
instead of a dignified old maid, after all. Well
just as you please only please don’t drop me entirely but let me still
be As
ever your disciple Rhoda Waterbury Hon.
G. W. Clinton Recd.
Sept. 20 ansd 21st.
In number 286, Climacium
dendroides (Dill.) Web. et
Mohr, “Hab. ... near Allosorus atropurpureus
Kunze is a rock-fern, growing on soil in vugs and ledges, enjoying limey substrata, now called Pellaea atrourpurea (L.) Link,
the Purple Cliff-brake. Allosorus achrostichoides Sprengel is
probably the Christmas Fern, Polystichum achrostichoides (Michx.)
Schott. The Clifton Springs in west-central Sulphate of lime
17.30 grs. Sulphate of magnesia
4.12 grs. Sulphate of soda
1.94 grs. Carbonate of lime
2.42 grs. Carbonate of magnesia
3.28 grs. Chloride of sodium
2.32 grs. Chloride of magnesia
1.02 grs. Organic matter
trace Total Hydrosulphuric and carbonic acids
are also found in small quantities,” (French1860). Hydropathy, or hydrotherapy was a
form of treating disease by the application of hot and cold water. In the
1950’s it had come into fashion, again, but the regimen was originated
in the 1820’s by Vincent Priessnitz based on
a theory of disease such that pathological disorders were caused by “an
accumulation of morbific matter, which must be
eliminated from the system by cold water applications and the observance of a
strict regimen.” Cold water baths constituting sponge-baths, wet-sheet
packing, sitz, foot and arm baths, douching,
steam-bathing, the dripping sheet, the plunge, the dry-blanket packing
“and other appliances of the hydropathic
system.” The Further information may be obtained from
Cohen, “Physiologic Therapeutics Hydrotherapy” (1902; Baruch,
“The Principles of Hydrotherapy” (1900); Kellogg,
“Hydrotherapy” (1902). Vol. 14 pp. 587-588, The Encyclopedia One might notice by now a change of tone in
the letters from botanical to personal. Rhoda has much in common with the old
judge, she dislikes her work (teaching) as much as he does (attending court),
both duties and obstacles to leisure and fun. She is old (a maid), like him (in
his fifties). She is a maiden, but he is not (married with children). He is a
prodigious walker in the open air, as she happens to be. Rhoda is an
entertainer (see letter Sept. 29 below), whose household duties are to amuse.
She is very clever at natural history, especially those aspects of interest
to the Honorable Clinton. The fact that she “knows” Mr. Peck
indicates the potential for jealous rivalry, but also exposure, and one is
reminded of her earlier references to knowledge of John Gebhard,
Jr. and other hints at indiscretion. Her references to her own selfishness with
respect to The feminine outpouring of concern for "S. Hadley Nov. [1865] Fri. morn. Dear Judge Clinton, I am quite anxious to know what the dangerous
Dr. Engelmann has been doing to the Junci. Perhaps
I ought to be ashamed of it but I have to confess that our hint is the only
knowledge I have of his labors (or criticisms) on our Rushes. May I know more
of Miss Waterbury? I infer that she has become quite a proficient in general
botanical knowledge and, as you said in your second letter, I feel a good
deal of interest in ladies who take pleasure in scientific
pursuits...”. Vol.
1. No. 169 [I 40] Schoharie Sept. 21st, 1865 My
Friend, Yours
of the 18th reached me yesterday with the list of mosses. I should feel quite
discouraged did I not keep in mind your remark that if you would not have
collected so many. I have 78 in all while but 50 of them have I collected
myself but then I have another packet to send up today to Mr. Peck and I
always try to call them by some name and sometimes succeed in getting the
correct one. Well I do not feel very badly, that I cannot equal my revered
tutor, and now I shall just tell you what you have that I have not but do not
imagine I have the cool impertinence to ask for all these. Whatever you can
without too much trouble spare. The Hypnums are my
special study at present in which Mr. P. is assisting me,
the genus is so large and difficult. I can not do much with it at present and
Mr. P. has just sent me some landmarks, that I shall
not get entirely lost. You have a very large list of them. I have 19 only. I
send the list I have not Gymnostomum curvirostrum Anomodon apiculatus Dicranum interruptum Anomodon obtusifolius Campylopus viridis
Anomodon attenuatus Fissidens adiantoides
Climacium Americanum Fissidens grandifrons
Hypnum abietinum Desmatodon arenaceus
Hypnum Blandowii Barbula tortuosa Hypnum triquetrum Orthotrichum speciosum
Hypnum splendens Orthotrichum Hutchinsiae Hypnum cordifolium Drummondia clavellata
Hypnum filicinum Funaria
var. calvescens
Hypnum curvifolium Bartramia Muhlenburgi
Hypnum rivulare Bryum
intermedium
Hypnum polymorphum Mnium punctatum
Hypnum hispidulum Mnium serratum
Hypnum subtile Mnium cuspidatum
Hypnum adnatum Aulacomnium palustre
Hypnum radicale Aulacomnium heterostichum Hypnum riparium var. Atrichum undulatum
Hypnum Muhlenbeckii Leskea rostrate
Thelia asprella Only
40 that I have not; now for my list of new ones since I last wrote. I will not put in those you have. Dicranum scoparium
Hypnum tamariscinum Leptodon trichomitrium
Didymodon rubellus,
quite rare Gymnostomum rupestre
Dicranum heteromallum I
shall send you one or two as I think a letter looks much better with a few
just to fill it out, and then one feels so happy to get a letter full, I do.
You had not received mine of the 18th when you wrote, my little ferns in it.
I have another I want to send if there is room enough in this. Do
you know I fear you have forgotten the photograph? it
may be a breach of politeness for me to remind you of it, but my desire to
obtain it must be my excuse. I really wonder if you do prize your mosses as
much as I do, what beautiful Hypnums you sent, and
Mr. Peck sent me Hypnum Crista-Castrensis,
it is so exceedingly beautiful I feast on it daily, it is my pride now. But I
will not impose another long letter of nonsense upon you this week, one will
do, so I bring this to a close before it becomes unreasonably lengthy, As
ever your disciple Rhoda
Waterbury Hon.
G. W. Clinton Recd.
Sept. 24. The mosses inclosed
were Dicranum heteromallum,
Gymnostomum rupestre. The
fern Polypodium vulgare. There is no record of a specimen of Polypodium vulgare from
Schoharie Co. in the Clinton Herbarium - nor the
other specimens and these may be in the State Herbarium in The genus Hypnum was
packed with Hedwigian species that have hence been
distributed into a variety of genera, based on technical characters such as
the costa, but especially the structure of the fruit: the seta, capsule,
peristome: Hypnum abietinum
L. ex Hedw. = Abietinella
abietina (Hedw.) Fleisch. Hypnum adnatum
Hedw. = Homomallium adnatum (Hedw.) Broth. Hypnum blandowii
Web. et Mohr = Helodium blandowii (Web. et Mohr) Warnst. Hypnum cordifolium
Harv. in Hook. = Calliergon cordifolium (Hedw.) Kindb. Hypnum curvifolium
Hedw. is the current name
for this plant. Hypnum filicinum
Hedw. = Cratoneuron filicinum (Hedw.) Spruce Hypnum hispidulum
Bridel = Campylium hispidulum (Bridel) Mitten Hypnum Muhlenbeckii
Bruch et Schimper ex James = Isopterygium striatellum (Brid.) Loesk. Hypnum polymorphum
Hedw. = Isopterygium praelongum (Hedw.) Warnst. var. stokesii (Turn.) Podp., or Hypnum polymorphum Hedw. ex Hook. et Tayl. = Campylium
chrysophyllum (Brid.)
J. Lange - it is
probably the latter species that is meant in this list. Hypnum radicale
P. -Beauv. = Campylium radicale (P.-Beauv.) Grout Hypnum riparium
Hedw. var. = Amblystegium
riparium (Hedw.) BSG, a
variable species
which has several varieties in synonymy. Hypnum splendens
Hedw. = Hylocomium splendens (Hedw.) BSG Hypnum subtile
= Amblystegiella subtilis
(Hedw.) Loesk. = Platydictya subtile (Hedw.)
Crum Hypnum triquetrum
Hedw. = Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus (Hedw.) Warnst. Hypnum crista-castrensis
Hedw. is a spectacularly
beautiful, conspicuous, shiny moss,
now called Ptilium crista-castrensis
(Hedw.) De Not., the Knight’s Plume-moss. It grows in
coniferous forests on humus or logs dense with mosses and liverworts. Gymnostomum rupestre
Schleich. ex Schwaegr. is Gymnostomum
aeruginosum Sm., a moss of calcareous regions. Vol.
1. No. 181 [I 26] Schoharie Sept. 29th, 1865 My
Dear Friend, I
cannot wait another day before writing you though the house is full of
company (a wedding party bound for California) and very much depends upon me
for the entertainment, but two of your very welcome letters have reached me
since I last wrote and I fear I shall miss them if I do not write, though to
tell the truth I answered them immediately on their arrival but as I did not
commit it to writing it has only benefited myself. I think you are not at all
well by your early morning letter, and very busy as usual by the last hasty
short one. I do not like that at all. I want you to have plenty of time and
spirits to listen to my rambling epistles and answer them just as the spirit
dictates - that I think is real fun. I don’t
like to be caged up here in the house with company all the time and it is
seldom I can find a company that like to ramble as I do and to tell the
truth, it has made me sick to stay in doors so I kept my bed one day and soon
can hardly breathe with a cold which I should have avoided could I have been
in the open air. I hope you will not think me unsocial, far from it, but you
don’t know - yes I think you do know! how I love the open air the woods
and the abandon of nature, and your letters always breathe fresh from the
fields even when you are in that dull court that I so much detest, then too I
am delighted to know you worship the God of Nature, another kindred tie
between us. But I must tell you about the mosses and things. You sent me Isoetes lacustris but the one
you spoke of in your last is not that species I infer. Did I not send you a
new liverwort? Mr. Peck says it is not described in our manual. He thinks it
is a Riccia and has sent it to Mr. Austin. I
must send you something in this even at the risk of sending something you
already have. I send Dicranum scoparium
though it seems to me there is but little difference between it and the var. pallidum. A copy of your ... additions those I have not Leskea nervosa
Hypnum aduncum Orthotrichum crispulum Hypnum gracile Orthotrichum canadense Hypnum minutulum Conomitrium Julianum Leucodon
brachypus Pylaisia velutina Seligeria And
I have no list of new ones to send in return, this
will never do it hurts me terribly and the weather is grand for the fields
too. If I could be out all day ... I should be entirely over this tormenting
cold and cough. Now
I shall surely have to stop for I have yet a few moments to send to Mr. Peck
some more of the new Riccia and a little bit of a
fellow that I hope is Seligeria after all but I found it on the ground it is
very minute. Let me urge you to take life easier at your age and please
don’t get sick for I cannot spare you long enough. You see I am yet
your devoted
disciple Rhoda
Waterbury Hon.
G. W. Clinton Recd.
Oct. 1 ansd
7th Rhoda’s specimen of Riccia
appears to be Grimaldia barbifrons
(= Mannia fragrans). Orthotrichum crispulum
(Bruch) Hornsch. ex B. S.
G. is Ulota crispula
Bruch; O. canadense Bruch et Schimper is O. anomalum Hedwig fide Grout. Hypnum
minutulum Hedw. is Thuidium minutulum
(Hedw.) B. S. G. cf. Par.; two species of Hypnum originally shared the same epithet (gracile) in For notes on the Waterburys
of California, see introductory notes. According to Clinton’s collecting diary for
September 1865, he had been collecting Isoetes
specimens from the south side of Grand Island, but especially at Strawberry
Island in the channel of the Niagara River. |
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Sullivant’s Plate 5 |
