Melbury <1>
July 1.
My dear Henry
I sent you a letter a few days ago, which I had kept by me for some time not knowing where to direct it to – & your first letter from Genoa did not give me any information as to your plans – but according to your directions in one I received a few days after, I sent it to the Poste restante Milan <2> – & hope you have got it safe by this time. I saw Jane <3> very well in London & gave her the books & remainder of my plants – I have heard from her since at Cheltenham.
My Botany has not ended with my return home – Our Echium vulgare is beyond all doubt a different plant from what we gathered in Italy & I do not find the Authorities insist on the smoothness or hairiness of the stamina – With. <4> makes E. violaceum a variety – but I never saw it in England. We have Cucubalus Behen at Abbotsbury <5> in the fields – a Silene maritima on the Beach & both in the Garden – where the latter alters its habit considerably – but always preserves some distinguishing characteristics – its leaves never so large as in C. B. & always set with minute setæ on the edge (which is by some described as serrated) – the flowers forming an even cup – [illustration] C. B. & C. Angustifolius of Naples both have a diagonally placed corolla thus [illustration] & the Laciniæ of the petals very narrow & of a distin[ct]<6> white – C B is ofter dioicous [sic] – & has its flowers in bunches while the maritima (& angustifol. I think) are simply panicled. – In the copse at Abbotsbury I found immediately on my arrival Lathyrus Nissolia & Aphaca really much larger & handsomer than in Italy – & a white vetch which I take to be a white variety of V. Lutea which Sowerby <7> I think calls V. alba it agrees with it in leaf. Pisum maritimum is really splendid this year & has at last taken to the garden where we had tried it for years without success. My Primula Palinuri is growing beautifully & I have hopes of the other plants or some weeds that come up with them. I have had the pleasure of finding Saponaria ocymoides & Anagallis cærulea & Saxifraga Aizoon established in the garden here.
I have found several of my Russian & other seeds come up tho some must have been a year & a half at least out of the ground. among [sic] them are some of my chief favorites as Verbascum Phœnicium of which we have many plants – Dianthus squarrosus also abundant – Scabiosa ochroleuca – Statice Tatarica or coriaria very fine – & one plant of the S. Trigona rather a peculiar & rare species & one plant of a very pretty astragalus from Sarepta – Some Campanulas & other nameless plants are coming forward. – I do recognize all of them in their present state A great many too of my first expedition are multiplied here & at Abbotsbury & of course at Penrice <8> – among others the Symphytum asp[illegible]num which luxuriates at Abbotsbury in & out of the garden – Salvia betonicæfolia – Nepeta Veronica & a sturdy Siberian Thalictrum – Scabiosa Tatarica 7 feet high – Geranium collinum – & Londini – & Robinia Caragana or attagana.
I hope you are collecting seeds of all the spring flowers – I find the Genoese Anthurium here under the name of A. racemosum. Pray bring seeds of all the Linums – we have L. angustifol wild at Ab. I have seen one O. apifera <9> since I returned it strikes me as very like the tenthredinifera. do you know Sedum Anglicum we have it on our walls – there is a great collection here – Sedums do very well at Abbotsbury but not Saxifrages nor Sempervivums – I have received a parcel of seeds from Russia & Siberia which I have just sown here they contain some most interesting names. The dreadful winter has killed the Pittosporums in Wales – but not Medicago Arborea at Abb: & some seedling Pelargoniums & Mesembryanthe are coming up now having been protected by the snow.
Italy
A Monsr
Monsieur H. Talbot
à la Poste Restante
Varese
Milan
Notes:
1. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
2. Possibly Doc. No: 01094, which is so addressed, and is postmarked Dorchester 26 June 1823, thus giving a date for the present letter.
3. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).
4. William Withering (1741–1799), physician, botanist and mineralogist. A Botanical Arrangement of British plants; … with an easy Introduction to the Study of Botany &c. Illustrated by copper plates (Birmingham: M. Swinney, 1787).
5. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
6. Written off the edge of page.
7. Likely to be James Sowerby (1757–1822), botanist and scientific illustrator. His publications included English Botany (1790).
8. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
9. Ophrys apifera.