26 Jun 1870
My Dear Sir
Thanks for your notice of the Vellozia elegans. <1> Hooker <2> has figured it in the Botanical Magazine <3> the No of the figure is 5803. He calls it Vellozia & does not think that there are sufficient characters to establish a genus Talbotia <4>
I am glad to hear that the Clærodendron is thriving in your Stove It is car certainly a beautiful plant when in full flower. The fine corolla however soon fades.
We shall expect a communication from you for the Royal Society <5> next session
The Tacsonia must have been very striking when in fruit.
I shall [be] glad to see your Italian plant & I shall examine it.
I shall be in Edinburgh till the end of July.
I am lecturing to a class of 280 –
Yours truly
J. H. Balfour
Notes:
1. See Doc. No: 09168.
2. Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911), botanist; Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, from 1865.
3. Curtis’s Botanical Magazine published his plant as Vellozia elegans, Natal Vellozia, s. 3 v. 25, 1 November 1869, Tab. 5803. Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker observed, 'our first knowlege of this plant was derived from a specimen brought from his garden by the Hon. H. Fox Talbot, F.R.S., to the Kew Herbarium, in 1866, which was raised from seed procured either from the Cape or Madagascar, which Professor Oliver prounded to be a Vellozia (identical with a Natal plant, Hypoxis barbacenioides, Harv. MSS.), and the name V. elegans was proposed for it. A specimen, presented by Mr. Fox Talbot to the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens, was next exhibited to the Botanical Society of that city by my friend Professor Balfour, as Vellozia elegans (see Proc. Bot. Soc. Edinb., ix. p. 79, Jan. 1867). At a subsequent meeting (l.c. p. 1839, 13th June), Dr. Balfour again exhibited this plant as V. Talboti, or, if it should prove a new genus, Talbotia elegans. On a third occasion (l.c. p. 192, 11th July), he exhibited it as Talbotia elegans, without a generic character....'
4. See Doc. No: 09177.
5. Royal Society of Edinburgh.