Dear Sir,

I have just heard that you intend to set out next week for Cannes, and I write to tell you of a very curious Orange tree which I saw two years ago in the great Orange Garden - at the Croisette, Cannes. It had on it growing at the same time, perfect Oranges & perfect Lemons, not grafted, and three or four fruit which were partly Lemon, and partly Orange, the difference of the parts being quite distinct: I examined several times the fruit with the utmost minuteness while it grew on the tree, and was perfectly satisfied that there could be no trick about it. The Owner of the Garden was very proud of the tree, which had been given him as a great curiosity by a friend. It has struck me that it would greatly interest you to go & examine this plant, and ascertain if it continues to produce such strange fruit, and you are little likely to hear of it at Cannes, for there no one seemed to take the least interest in any thing of the kind. You will find the Garden of M^r Woolfield "Villa Victoria" well worth a visit, and the owner is Most kind & liberal in allowing it to be seen, and he would give you an order to see the Garden of the "Chateau S^t George" in which there are many beautiful & interesting plants. While we were at Cannes, those were the only Gardens, of any great interest - I confess that I envy your going to that most charming place where I hear the weather is delightful.

My Sister joins me in kind regards to M^rs & the Miss Talbots, and I am dear Sir,

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Gibson Craig - ^<1>

Hermiston House

Thursday 8^th March

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Notes:

1. Miss Gibson-Craig may have met the Talbots through photographic connections. In the 1856 Photographic Society of Scotland exhibition in Edinburgh, she exhibited two portraits by a photographer by the name of Wagner.