Melbury ^<1>

27 April 1830

My dear Henry

As I see by the papers you are to have a Ball soon I must write you a little botany to direct your attention from such an untoward occurrence. Orchis Cyrilli is in flower very fine & a Serapias & Undulata coming – The tulips have done very well this year, I am taking down all their characters & when their signalement ^<2> is made out I will give them a passport for the botanical Reg. or Mag. ^<3> or may be monographise them my self if I can find an Artist. Neither Gardener nor any one else can tell me what half the things are that are coming up nor what they are like, so I have only to wait. At this moment in three different beds, among alliums, snowdrops & anemones, comes up a sort of plant which nobody has planted nor sown, & which from its appearance, might be worth an even bet whether Dianthus, Silene, Helianthemum or Cordylocarpus.

The O. ^<4> exscapums given by Tenore ^<5> as such 7 years ago are Umbellatum var. minus – & which are confounded by him & others with exscapum, a true species when you have got it, tho perhaps too near nanum of Fl. Græca. ^<6> My O. latifolium if such it be, is known by having capsules quite yellow, & 6fid ^<7> unequally, not in a star, <illustration> like most others but with rays in pairs, <illustration>, a character I observed 3 years ago in it & suppose it constant.

Muscari commutatum Gussone ^<8> has a stalk green up to the flowers – in racemosum it is purplish – the segments are compressed black, not recurved white – & it has a polished shining look very distinct from the others – I found it between Lecce & Gallipoli – & hope to encrease it as most other muscaris flourish so with us.

We have Iris cristata a very pretty dwarf one which is new to me. Sisyrinchium does not flower, & scorpioides has utterly failed this year. Symphytum orientale, a great favorite of mine is also in blow, I recommend it to you for your shrubbery & can spare you quantities of it & other Boragineæ. Pray tell me of any evergreen climbers you can recommend, to cover a wall, do you know anything of a Clematis orientalis or Sinensis or any other such – Balearica & cirrhosa & Bignonia capreolata we have, & they do perfectly as well as Billardiera scandens, which I find quite hardy –

This has been a fine winter for tri<text missing> ^<9> Do you know the Trilliums – there is a w<hite?> one here very pretty. To my surprise I find Camellias stand frost better than myrtles & with us sometimes flower in autumn. The Oxalis cernua & purpurea seem to do well out of doors too & by making them flower before the winter they seem to stand it better Do you consider Rœmer & Schultes ^<10> as good authority. Do you know Hopp & Hornschuhe ^<11>

What do you think of the Welsh anemone is it nova species. ^<12> I have Ornith nutans wild from Beminster – do you allow it as a British native I believe it grows no where between this & Rome & Naples –

I have a great collection of Sedums do tell me if you know any book or man than <sic> can explain them –

Y^r Affte

W F S

I recommend Lithospermum Dauricum it is one of the prettiest of the genus

The borders of Gentians here are quite dazzling pray save me seed of Hypecoum

Dorchester, April twenty eight, 1830 Ilchester ^<13>
HT
H. Talbot Esq^r

31. Sackville S^t
London

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Notes:

1. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.

2. Description.

3. The Botanical Register or Botanical Magazine.

4. Ornithogalum.

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

6. Sexfid (divided into six segments).

7. John Sibthorp (1758–1796), James Edward Smith and John Lindley, Flora Græca sive Plantarum rariorum historia… London, 1806).

8. Giovanni Gussone (1787–1831), the authority for the classification of this plant.

9. Text torn away under seal.

10. Johann Jakob Roemer and Joseph August Schultes edited and expanded Linnæus’s Systema vegetabilium between 1817 and 1830.

11. D.H. Hoppe (1760–1846) and C.F. Hornschuch (1793–1850) issued two series of exsiccatae (sets of herbarium specimens with printed labels) entitled Plantae Cryptogamae Selectae and Plantae Phanerogamae Selectae.

12. A new species.

13. Henry Stephen Fox Strangways, 3rd Earl of Ilchester (1787–1858).