Naples.
8 May

My dear Henry

I received a tolerable good account of my seeds &c from you last post – I am sorry Cyclamens do not succeed better. It is impossible to distinguish them by the root therefore they are probably mixed the spring vegetation is so much more rapid than the autumnal that both sorts are to be taken up best now – the same with crocuses &c – I have got a lot of autumnal cycl. seed for there are some fine plants in my garden, but no spring d^o unless two small ones found at Cuma be it. My excursion has been most unlucky botanically speaking, for I missed the early Flora of Naples & was too soon for that of Puglia. Next week I think of going for 10 days for a rapid tour to the country below Pæstum – Alburno, Palinuro, & the Cilento where on M^te Stella is a beautiful new Orobus – O. Jordani, found by one of Tenores ^<1> pupils – it is much more like a Lathyrus than O. lathyroides, which in my systema vegetabilium ^<2> is O. vicioides – or cracciformis. Do you know Vicia oroboides? a singular link between Vicia, Orobus & Lathyrus.

On the M^te Novo I was luck enough to find & dig up lots of roots of Orchis pseudosambucina Serapia lingua & cordigera or longipetala which I suppose is your Pseudo Cor I found two pretty Helianthemums – one I take to be the true plantagineum, that which I found two years ago on M^te Pisano being Tuberaica – the other calycinum or ericoides or variation from Fumaria on the opposite side to lævipes, being pubescent. H. angustifolium which I found in Puglia is so little known that Persoon ^<3> has no habitat for it – At Cuma I found V. hybrida, & grandiflora, & one between Cracca & pseudocracca & not ochroleuca, polyphylla or polysperma 3 pretty new species which I have seen at Castellamare & [Astroni?] – It is very odd I never find new plants till just after they are discovered – I found Silene sericea v. canescens S. gallica – E. violaceum – O. natrix – L. articulatus & sativus Prismatocarpus hirsutus, Scabiosa integrifolia, Brassica fruticulosa – Euphorbia segetalis – Chrysanth. coronarium but no orchideæ – At Cas. a Mare I got O. undulata a very handsome & new sort – O. Cyrilli O. pallens. O acuminata something like variegata – Col. napolitanum – &c.

I do not like to send my frescoes home because I may pass thro Munich or Paris & shew them to some lithographer – I am afraid London artists are not likely to be used to that sort of work which must be done not only with exactness but taste – as to touch, shading &c &c – Does it necessarily destroy the original if so I think I shall keep some as they are – Do you know Sir N. Ridley ^<4> – he has bought some good pictures here – a Claude ^<5> for 40£– not very dear – but as it is a small facsimile of the Doria Claude he will have great difficulty in proving its originality.

We have nasty drizzling weather neither hot nor cold the otherday [sic] we had a regular English fog all day – had it come a month ago the country would have been more verdant than it is this year. It is very odd I never can find a Cytinus ^<6> though I live among cisti & have done so for so many years. Pray plant all sorts of creepers among your trees – the climate of England suits so many of the Clematis tribe that you might have a great variety of them.

Gussone ^<7> seems to have found as little in Sicily as Sibthorp ^<8> in Greece. I should think the country must contain twice as much – Have you Rafinesques ^<9> work –

Have you given up the polarisation of Light

Henry F. Talbot Esq^r
31 Sackville Street

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Notes:

1. Michel Tenore (1780–1861), Italian botanist & traveller.

2. Classification system for plants.

3. Christian Hendrik Persoon (1755–1837), botanist.

4. Probably related to Sir Mathew White Ridley (1778–1836).

5. Claude Lorrain, French painter ( ca.1602–1682).

6. A parasitic plant that lives on members of the genus Cistus.

7. Giovanni Gussone (1787–1866), botanist.

8. John Sibthorp (1758–1796), botanist.

9. Probably C. S. Rafinesque (1783–1840). The work referred to might be his Medical flora, or, Manual of the medical botany of the United States of North America, which began publication in 1828.