Florence
June 7 [1825] <1> –
My dear Henry
Now I hear you are at Penrice <2> I no longer wonder at your not writing to me I hope you are collecting there some of my Commissions to Jane- <3> they want here to have specimens or seeds of our Rubia, our Silene Anglica – and Sedum Anglicum all which you may find at Penrice – send them me in letters & any others you think worthy
I am going to take a walk with Raddi <4> this evening in a wood where we found Ophrys speculum once before which I do not agree with Pollini <5> to be a variety of araniferum nor is it as far as my botanical memory goes, the same as one I thought it was at Constantinople which is Tenore's <6> ciliata I am sure
I have a great mind to make some new botanical arrangements which would I think surprise you Among Irises I consider I. germanica florentina pallens & pumila as one species, probably more fall in with them – I think the Habenaria here is not our bifolia but propose calling it minor, inodora or meridionalis, the other major odora septentrionalis Polygala flavescens is a variety of major or vulgaris – Tulipa sylvestris should be a distinct genus Arum Italicum & maculatum varieties –
I took a ramble to a wood yesterday with Raddi where we found lots of O. coriophora & Speculum, <7> three speculums grew on a wall – also pyramidalis, apifera, & he promises soon some Lilies which I never saw wild. This evening I am to go with him to the Giardino dei Semplici<8> where is a strange collection of things in great disorder but some fine & rare plants. Among which I discovered a long sought Campanula Stylosa which is very pretty – it bears the same relationship to rotundifol. that Rapunculus does to patula, withall that being very much in the style of marsupiflora which I had never seen before also C. speciosa a very enlarged sort of glomerata with cordiform leaves, & Prismatocarpus perfoliata very pretty
One day in a little woody ravine I found Serapias rubra the most lovely of European orchideć it is more like the tropical Cymbidia than any others if it had but coloured bracteć would be perfect – I am now sure that what I took for it at Petersburg was latifolia which sometimes [sic] so red & so different from itself that it might pass for 2 or 3 difft Species. We have O. Narbonense <9> or pyramidale if they are not the same, out now – I am trying to keep Orchis roots in water – & so transport them to England in wet cotton.
Pray examine Euphorbia Portlandica while you are at Penrice & get seeds of it – I always thought it a miniature of Myrsinites & there is one here which they call by that name but I take it to be Portlandica – & I want to settle this – There are two E. very much alike here & both a little like Tenores ceratocarpa but nobody knows the name of anything for certain. If you go to Abbotsbury <10> do look & see if ceratocarpa has petala setigera or not, & see that dendroides is put in a good place. There are some of the finest Centaureas here I ever saw –
Yr Aff
W T H F S
Henry Talbot Esqr
Notes:
1. WTHFS had recently arrived in Florence [see Doc. No: 00296] and made the acquaintance of Raddi.
2. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
3. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).
4. Joseph (Giuseppe) Raddi (1770–1829), Italian botanist.
5. Ciro Pollini (1782–1833), author of Flora Veronensis quam in prodromum Florć Italić septentrionalis exhibet C. Pollini. Cum tabulis ćneis (Verona: 1822–1824).
6. Michel Tenore (1780–1861), Italian botanist & traveller.
7. Orchis coriophora & Orchis speculum.
8. The Giardino dei Semplici was the botanical gardens of Florence, established in 1545.
9. Ornithogalum narbonense.
10. Abbotsbury, Dorset, home of WTHFS.