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Document number: 01422
Date: 10 Apr 1826
Recipient: SMITH James Edward
Author: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Collection: Linnean Society Archives London
Collection number: General Corr 10.19
Last updated: 15th July 2010

[In either a typesetting error or an editorial decision, the last paragraph of Doc. No: 01470 was reproduced as a PS to this letter in Lady Smith's Memoir and Correspondence of the late Sir James Edward Smith, M. D. (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1832), v. 2, pp. 297–298. Doc. No: 01413 was printed in the same volume. The transcription below is from the original manuscript letter.]

Corfu

April 10th 1826

Dear Sir,

Trusting you have received a letter <1> I sent on some days ago, I will now give you some further account of the vegetation of this island. I have however only examined the environs of the Town; in the remoter parts, if I may credit the director of the botanic garden here, there are some very extraordinary productions; as, Echium Giganteum, 2 species of Othnona the pectinata and others; two species of Osteospermum pisiferum & moniliferum, Nolana prostrata, Chyrsocoma Coma aurea, and a beautiful yellow climber, genus unknown to me, –whether Dolichos or Crotalaria, I cannot tell. But as I have not myself observed these plants growing wild, I hesitate about them. - Now to come to my own observations.–I mentioned in my last that I had found a new? Euphorboia, resembling E. Peplus; on revisiting the spot, I found (which is singular) another Euphorbia growing with it, and very like it, but admirably distinct in its characters, especially in its sharply hexagonal capsule, which I have not seen in any other species of this genus. The two plants are thus characterised: (they both resemble E. Peplus or E. exigeua.

No. 1. No. 2.
Umbellæ radii 5, Umbellæ radii 5.
Planta glaberrima, glaberrima.
Folia semiamplexicaulia, sessilia.
obtusa, acutiora.
apice obscure serrulata, ubique eleganter serrulata.
Petala minima, integra, idem.
Capsulæ triquetræ angulis echinatæ acute hexagonæ.

I should be glad to learn whether these plants are described anywhere. I have found a large whiteflowered species of Lithospermum, with trailing stems; Stachys spinulosa? with white flowers,–a large plant; Veronica syriaca, an elegant plant with large flowers; Phleum felinum? Convolvulus tenuissimus. Crambe Corvini (not in Prodr.); Lotus tetragonolobus. Lathyrus setifolius. Bunias Erucago. Ornithopus scorpioides; Andropogon distachyon; Aristolochia rotunda; Allium subhirsutum; Urospermum picroides; Hesperis verna; Rhagadiolus stellatus; Polypodium leptophyllum? Anthyllis tetraphylla; Euphorbia amygdaloides, abundant (not in Prodr.); Geranium, with very large flesh-coloured flowers,–petals entire; Vicia bithynica; Coronilla securidaca; &c. &c. &c.

I am about to visit Santa Maura (the ancient Leucadia), and hope to give you a good account from thence. The season is backward: there are a vast number of plants springing up everywhere.

I remain, dear Sir, Yours faithfully,
H. F. Talbot.

[In the printed text, the PS is erroneously added here.]


Notes:

1. See Doc. No: 01413.