Letter from George U. Skinner [British merchant and naturalist in Guatemala] to John Lindley L.L.D. [assistant secretary of the Horticultural Society of London], 21 Regent Street, London

Title

Letter from George U. Skinner [British merchant and naturalist in Guatemala] to John Lindley L.L.D. [assistant secretary of the Horticultural Society of London], 21 Regent Street, London

Record type

Archive

Original Reference

RHS/Col/7/1/2/66

Date

22-25 Feb 1839

Scope & content

Written from Isabal [Izabal, Guatemala] and Belize

Postmarked ('N 30AP30 1839', 'AI30 1839')

He wrote to Mr Bateman [James Bateman, British landowner and horticulturist] complaining about letters having been sent to Guatemala with the news that Mr Hartweg [Theodor Hartweg] would arrive to Guatemala, but he himself has received no communication; he offered his assistance in London to Lindley when Mr Reeves [?John Reeves, naturalist, East India company tea inspector in China] introduced them; he was pleased to receive Lindley's letter dated 16 Nov some days ago, postmarked in London 15 Dec, 'proving how much I had done you wrong in my letter to Mr Bateman'; he will be glad to assist Hartweg; he is on his way to Belize, and apologizes for the letter, 'as neither pens or ink have I in this hole'; this morning he canoed for four hours along the sides of the lake ('one of the most magnificent in the world') and collected many large Oncidium, a few of which he has sent to Mr Bateman ('but whose magnitude I will not write down, lest you say I romance, [I] solely leave you to judge [it] from ocular demonstration'); he has collected Orchideae, which he will bring back to Guatemala [Guatemala City, Guatemala]; he 'loaded 6 Indians in Guatemala & on the road with cactuses of various kinds and Orchideae'; he will send the cacti 'in Sir William Hooker's [William J. Hooker, professor of botany at the University of Glasgow and director of the Glasgow Botanic Gardens] name' to the Duke of Bedford [John Russell, 6th duke of Bedford]; he looks forward to working with Hartweg, 'as I am only a lover of the floral world, thirsting for some few wrinkles in its most delightful intricacies, and I have places marked out for a few rambles'; he discovered a species of Batemania: 'it is octagonal with leaves like the Maxillaria aromatic [Lycaste aromatica]', with a flower-stem at the base of each pseudo-bulb with six to eight flowers, and will send dried specimens of 'imperfectly blown' plants; the collections he is sending to England are 'by far the richest' he has sent, and thousands of plants still remain to be collected in the country, and every time he collects, he finds three or four new things

Extent

4 page letter (1 sheet)

Is part of

RHS archive: plant collector papers

Repository

Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library

Copyright

Orphan work

Credit Line

RHS Lindley Collections

Usage terms

Non-commercial use with attribution permitted (CC BY-NC 4.0)