Brussels
Thursday
My dear Henry
Your botanical letter smells strong of Anthoxanthum odoratum. I wish you had told me of the 2 persons from whom you heard I was to go to Florence, for I have heard nothing official about & begin to be unquiet – the wind is East so I am not likely to hear by post today – My route will depend entirely on the time I am allowed to go – If I must go soon, I shall take Nice if not till the end of April, it will be already halfwasted & the Lemons <1> gone, & the Tyrol at least will be open if not the Simplon & Splugen – I have an idea one if not both the new roads over the Apennines from Parma & Modena to Florence are open – & should like to go by Pontremoli & see Mte Pellegrino which I think the finest of Apennines & come down on Lucca baths – however that would make a pretty little tour for the Summer. I hear the Riviera di Levante is not improving in point of road.
Tell me how you recommend me to go to Nice – by the Rhone – Estrelles – Gap – Frejols – &c? Shall I see you at Paris? If I find I need not go for some time Ill not spend my time here – if you are going to England I may meet you there. I send over roots, seeds, & cuttings from the botanic garden here which is a pretty good one & does more credit to the present than the former directors of it. If you have only just planted your Nice bulbs you must force them to flower before you leave Paris – There was an Exposition here the other day in which I saw Cypripedium venustum not so pretty as the common – Rhododendron azalioides quite beautiful, double Azalea Indicas – Dianella cærulea Amaryllis Johnsoni & Cinnamomea which got a medal Pancratium Americanum & many others – The Duke [illegible] has a very fine collection of Camellias which he manages himself & with great success – Do you know Anemone frutescens or arborea – I believe a Cape plant – perhaps more properly an [Atrageus?] – Is not Adonis vernalis a dwarf plant with milfoil leaf & a large shining golden flower?
Douglas is here who was our Secretary at Naples he is going in the summer to meet his mother & sister in or near Switzerland – Can you tell me the name of your Villa at Varese which I want to recommend them – or of its owner – or the rent you paid for the summer there – it would just suit them.
Do you know Count Bray? <2> he is at Paris I believe. I knew him at Petersburg – he wrote a book on Livonia which is good – if it had but less flattery to the Emperor. I continue to receive satisfactory reports of my garden from Ht Frampton <3> who tends it at Abbotsbury <4> – Everything seems at least a fortnight earlier there – besides they keep Arbutus & Cypress & 50 other hardy things in the Greenhouse here – I don’t understand your metamorphosis – it would lead to the exploded doctrine of equivocal generation I have found Euphraxia lutea & I think C. lanatus in Russia flowering in the end of August – it must be on a mountain at Nice that they flower not till October. – Come & pay me a visit & see Raddi <5> & go yrself to the Islands –
Let me hear from you again soon, as I may be ordered off any day at a short warning – If you see any plants out of doors about Paris which we have in the house, let me know – as I like to have hints of that kind – My Dolichos lignosus is still very fine & will be beautiful next summer if it escapes the winter – Mesembryanthemum spectabile is in flower I hear – It was Scilla amœna they sent me I did not know I had it. The tulip they tell me is going to turn out an Ornithog: what can it be? Do Tulipa & O: play into each others hands like Conferva & Bryum? Do you know the tree nettle?
Yrs
W T H F S.
A France
A Monsieur
Monsieur W. H. F. Talbot
Hotel de la terrasse
Rue de Rivoli
a Paris
Notes:
1. Sir Charles Lemon (1784–1868), politician & scientist; WHFT’s uncle, and his family.
2. Franois Gabriel, Comte de Bray (1765–1832), Essai critique sur l’histoire de la Livonie suive d’un tableau de l’état actuel de cette province (Dorpat: J. C. Schünmann, 1817). [See Doc. No: 01246].
3. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886), WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law.
4. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
5. Joseph (Giuseppe) Raddi (1770–1829), Italian botanist.