[Two of WHFT's letters to Smith (Doc. No: 01413 and Doc. No: 01422) were reproduced 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. However, there was either a typesetting mixup or an editorial decision and the last paragraph of the present letter was printed as a PS to Doc. No: 01422. The transcription below is from the original manuscript letter.]
31 Sackville Street, London <1>
27th August 1826
Dear Sir
I have the pleasure to send you by the Norwich Coach a copy of Bertoloni’s Amoenitates Italicæ <2> which the author entrusted to my charge when I saw him at Bologna.
I hope you received a letter or two which I wrote to you from the island of Corfu. I have brought a small collection of plants from thence & from othe other islands, which I have compared with Bertoloni’s Herbarium <3> (the best in Italy) but I still have many doubts which can only be solved by a reference to Sibthorp’s <4> original specimens. Mr Don wishes me to communicate my observations on the Ionian Flora to the Linnean Society. <5> They are not very important, as I spent only one month in the Islands (April) and the vegegation, tho’ highly interesting and beautfiul, was not sufficiently advanced – I think I have several new species and a grat number not in Sibthorp’s Catalogue.
The Umbilliferae <6> of the Ionian Islands are numerous & extraordinary. They seem little known and I cannot refer them even to their genera in some instances. A copy of the Flora Graeca <7> which I met with in the Grand Duke’s Library <8> at Florence on my return, was of great service to me.
I beg to be remembered to Lady Smith <9> & am
Dear Sir Yours most truly
W.H.F. Talbot
Sir J. E. Smith
President of the Linnean Society
&c &c &c
Norwich
Notes:
1. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
2. Antonio Bertoloni Amoenitates Italicæ (Bologna: 1819).
3. Antonio Bertoloni (1775–1869), Herbarium.
4. John Sibthorp (1758–1796), botanist.
5. Linnean Society, London.
6. The last paragraph of this letter was mistakingly published as the postscript in Doc. No: 01422.
7. John Sibthorp, Floræ Græcæ Prodromus (London: 1806–1813).
8. Ferdinand III of Habsburg-Lorraine.
9. Lady Pleasance Smith (1773–1877).