Letter from Sir M. Foster [Michael Foster] to George Maw
Information
Title
Letter from Sir M. Foster [Michael Foster] to George Maw
Record type
Archive
Original Reference
MAW/1/24
Date
Feb-Mar 1882
Scope & content
Written from Shelford, Cambridgeshire. Manuscript
He thanks Maw for the Iris subbiflora; from the foliage, it is different from previous plants he has kept under that name; he encloses the proofs of the instructions and list for Maw to check [enclosures not present]; he will see Besant [Walter Besant, secretary to the Palestine Exploration Fund] on Friday and will then let Maw know where to send the ‘diggers’; he is pleased to hear Maw is revisiting his old haunts; he is excited to have bulbs of Iris tingitana as he has some under that name which are certainly Iris filifolia and would like a clear idea of them; Baker [John Gilbert Baker, botanist, keeper of the Kew Herbarium] calls Maw’s bulbs from Tangiers [Tangier, Morocco] ‘filifolium latifolium’ [Iris filifolia var. Latifolia], though Hooker [Joseph Dalton Hooker] figured them as Iris tingitana; there are therefore three varieties of iris bulbs and he does not mind how many he has of each; he has failed to obtain Iris fontanesii [Iris tingitana], until now found only in Algeria but possibly existing westward; there is a bunch of Xiphium [a subgenus of Iris] from Gibraltar gathered by Maw which has foliage of Xiphion latifolium [Iris latifolia] but grows in autumn and winter like Xiphion vulgare [Iris xiphium]. Undated [written after 18 Feb and before 5 Mar 1882; the subject matter matches letters written in Feb-Mar 1882]