Petersburg
Feb 4/16 1818 –
My dear Henry
In spite of your obstinate silence I cannot help writing to let you know how the concerns of Botany go on – you must know then I am just come from the Baron de Vietinghoff, <1> he has been shewing me views he made about the Caucasus & a hortus Sic. Cauc. <2> which is perfect, for management, siccation & all. I particularly coveted Campanula saxifraga & Merendera – Scorzonera eriosperma, Hedysarum pilosum, Astragalus calycinus & many others. He has still many more to shew me & has promised to shew me his Botanical Collection if I go to see him in Livonia<3> where he has a fine place to judge by the views be shewd me – a lake & old castle on an islet. I have [illegible deletion] made interest for some but as it is only on the score of sending them to Oxford or some public place I fear you will get none. I doubt if I may keep any for myself. I am lately elected a member of the Soc. Hist. Nat. at Moscow & Soc. Min. at Peter <4> there is a great Botanist who lives at Gorinka near Moscow & overlooks Count something Razoumofsky’s <5> Garden – Dr Fischer. <6> I dare say you know him by name. I made a very small acquaintance with him unfortunately. I have bought Gmelini Flora Sibirica <7> for 30s 4 vols. 4to & Ammani Icones Plant. R. for 5s 1 vol. 4to Liboschitz Flore de P et de M. <8> – 5s 1 vol. 4to & hope ere long to possess Flora Rossica <9> & Flora Caucasica <10> of which latter a second vol. will appear shortly. Does the Botanic Garden at Cambridge answer your expectations? the Bavarian Minister here is a great Botanist & I am in hopes to get some seeds of his Livonian discoveries.<11> I want very much to get some seeds of the Mimosa Stephaniana but cannot do you know it & Gypsophila paniculata. M. de Vietinghoff having been in those parts himself is a valuable acquaintance all his collections are of his own finding & arranged with printed tickets synonyms & localities. If you could send me a grain or two of some thing raw or a dried specimen or so in a Letter it wd go a great way towards eliciting some more. Most of these would stand out our winters if not all – certainly all N. of the Cauc. Is it the continuance, or the simple degree of cold if but for a minute that kills plants? or circumstances thereon attending as Wind, variation of temp. damp &c? Will not all plants of all countries [sur]vive <12> any degree not below the f[rost point?] I should like to have a coldhouse as [well] as a hothouse to try such experiments. I observed the sugarcane banana &c at Gorinka in a temp of 8° Réaumur only – & looking the most healthy house of all – wch I attribute to its being better lit. Answer these queries I pray. Writemea longletterlikeareport [sic] of all botanical news you know
Yr Affte
W T H F S
William H. F. Talbot Esqre
31 Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. Baron Christian Burchard von Vietinghoff or Vietinghoff Scheel (1767-1828), Russian Counsellor, naturalist - see Doc. No: 00792.
2. Hortus siccus Caucasicus, a Caucasian dried garden, viz. a collection of dried plant specimens from the Caucasus. Baron von Vietinghoff contributed to Prof G F Hoffmann, Hortus Siccus Caucasicus seu Plantae (N S Vsevolojsky, Moscow 1812) - this confirms the identity in the previous note.
3. Livonia is divided today between Estonia and Latvia.
4. Imperial Natural History Society of Moscow, originally the Society of Naturalists at Moscow founded by Gotthelf Fischer (see note 6). Mineralogical Society of St Petersburg recently founded; Baron von Vietinghoff was the first President
5. Count Alexy Razoumovsky (1748-1822), whose private gardens at his Gorinka estate were well known. See also Doc. No: 00796.
6. Johann Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim (1773-1853), Professor of Natural History at Moscow University. See Doc. No: 00792.
7. Johann Georg Gmelin (1709–1755), Gmelin, Samuel Gottlieb: Flora Sibirica, sive Historia plantarum Sibiricae … (St Petersburg Academy of Sciences, 1747, 1769).
8. Johann Amman, Stirpium Rariorum in Imperio Rutheno Sponte Provenientium Icones et Descriptiones (St Petersburg 1739). Joseph Liboschitz (1783–1824), Flore des environs de St Pétersbourg et de Moscou, (St Petersburg: Pluchart, 1811). [See Doc. No: 00759].
9. Peter Simon Pallas (1741–1811), Flora Rossica … (St Petersburg: J. J. Weilbrecht, 1784, 1788).
10. Friedrich August, Freiherr Marschall von Bieberstein (1768–1826), Flora taurico-caucasica (Charkov: 1808, 1819).
11. Bavarian minister to Russia Count Francois Gabriel de Bray (1765-1832), diplomat, naturalist, historian.
12. Text torn away under seal.