Palermo
July 1./32
My dear Henry
I have frequently had it in mind to write to you during my tour, but thought it would be best to sum up all in one final letter & try & persuade you having once made a dash at Corfu, to make another, next season, to Sicily – I have seen the country very imperfectly, but yet am delighted with it, & while as yet we have no scirocco, it is not hotter than Naples, at least on this side of the island. Nevertheless, the winter & spring are so mild here, compared even with Calabria, that vegetation gets a start of a month or 6 weeks early in the year, which carries it on whatever be the arrière saison. <1>
For this reason whenever you do come come early, that is in Feb. for I, by losing the best part of May in the comparatively wintery regions of Calabria, lost all the orchideæ which are the glory of Sicily & which being mostly those found in locis apricis <2> flower early & what is worse rapidly dry up – So I am unable to perform your commission – but I hope all you had have been drawn, & put on record. Do not attempt Sicily & Calabria together – unless staying the whole spring in Sicily you take Calabria for the summer when the gentry migrate with their flocks & herds in ingenti Silâ <3> which is covered with snow in May, & is an unexplored country.
It is as they say quite refreshing to find oneself suddenly surrounded by new plants some of which one has not an idea of & others though one knows what they must be, are now in their own habitat. Such is the feeling on descending the Dirupata di Morano into the valley of Cosenza – Where every plant was new to me – two sad-coloured nightsmelling gilliflowers one a Mattola the other Hesperis (both difft from those we know in the gardens). Polygala pubescens, the most distinct of all I know from P. vulgaris & family – Ophrys lutea, Achillea filipendulina, very pretty, various Helianthema, new to me white & yellow orobus Jordani, Ornith. montanam, Viola calcarata of all colours, Scabiosas Silenes, Salvias, Umbelliferæ all new, Dianthus Bisignani (frutescent) several distinct but obscure Sedums,
In Sicily I have found a yellow musky, lavatera, a pretty small blue Lithospermum, Allium obtusum, the beautiful Conv. Altheoides – & var. Rhamnus lotus Silene fruticosa, Capp. spinosa vera, which I never saw before, Linaria striata & var. Led. 7petalum & glanduliferum &c – Lav. trimestris Conv. 3color, &c &c
In P. Buteras <4> garden are in flower in open ground large plants of Duranta, Globba japonica & nutans Arum Colocasia, Bignonia stans, Cheirostemon platanifol all sorts of Canna, Hedychium Ficus, Phormium, Mimosa, Solanum lanceolatum, glutinosum, Bamboo, Hoga, Cassia Erythinas <sic> large shady trees, it is quite a tropical garden Why did you not give yr remarks on what flowered at Lacock
W F S
Henry F. Talbot Esqr
31 Sackville Street
Notes:
1. The modern sense is ‘end of Autumn’, but here it has the sense of ‘later season’, ‘subsequent season’.
2. In sunny places.
3. Into huge Sila (a forested, mountainous district of Calabria in southern Italy).
4. Prince Butera. [See Doc. No: 00418].