Florence
Nov 18 –

Dear Henry

I enclose you some seeds – I have been looking at Amœn. It– of Bertoloni ^<1> he is overcautious in making new species, it heaps αβγδεζ one on another to a degree I greatly disapprove of after all it is an artificial tho not arbitrary distinction & should be considered as a logical classification applied to natural phen objects – this is not very clear but you will see what I mean – he says he wrote to you a month ago – I have fixed my Colchicum as the true C. alpinum if of nobody else, at least of Viviani ^<2> – Raddi ^<3> – Bertoloni & me – let it be spec. or var. as you will – it is C. montanum of Allioni ^<4> who it seems was unaccountably ignorant of the true montanum of Genoa.

Wallis ^<5> has finished your copy of the Madonna ^<6> for £40 [illegible deletion] sterling & it is to come to me as soon as varnished & dry what shall I do with it? I will pay him It is quite worthy of your Zingarella ^<7> – & is the best copy I have seen of the picture I think it quite beautiful & with the Zingarella will make a beautiful pair – He has a most peculiar talent for copying Correggio ^<8> – I do not like his Raphaels. There is a good old copy of the fornarina to be sold for 30 Louis – I dare say 15 would secure it – in the house of the man who has the Leonardo, better than any modern copy I have seen – The old copyists must have had some traditionary [sic] skill from the old masters or else they finished their copies by the side of the originals in stead of taking them home as they do now. He has some other good pictures – an Onofrio Marinari ^<9> something like Horatia. There is a famous Salvator ^<10> exhibiting which was once in the gallery of Card. Fesch ^<11> to be sold for 350 louis –

Mauri ^<12> writes me word Ophrys hiulca is O. distoma of Bivona – pray plant Acer negundo at Lacock. I have just seen Salvia leucocephala which is beautiful – it has purple woolly calyxes & white flowers. The calyx is green inside like a common calyx – bracteæ obsolete.

We are without fresh news from the Levant. As it is said ships were sent off immediately after the battle ^<13> to Smyrna & Dardanelles I conclude Alexandria where I hope John ^<14> is by this time could not have been forgotten – At any rate a French consul & factory would not be forgotten by a French Adm^l supposing he staid at Aleppo – & if on the road or at sea between the two it is not likely the news would spread fast enough to overtake reach the people of the country there How are English politics going on? They say Ld Grey ^<15> is still determined on opposition – & that Brougham ^<16> is to rat. Do you stay at home all the winter? M^r Crawford ^<17> is here he asked me to pay a visit to Corfu, which if I heard of Johns arrival there or thereabouts I should like to do – I wish you were all at Rome this winter I would certainly go there. The weather has been exceedingly cold ever since I came – several greenhouse plants killed in all the gardens – there was snow yesterday morning on the roofs of Fiesole there has been a bitter east wind & Nebbia ^<18> all the time – What a change from Genoa & the coast of Spezia. What do you think of my finding at Seravezza Blechnum boreale & Pteris Arctica like Dido & Eneas in a cave the guide told me to look for Capil Venere as he called it (which was there too) a very pretty assemblage. The climate of Seravezza is perfect there being orangetrees out of doors & yet no mosquitoes – high mount^ns & the sea the two ferns characterise the meeting of the North & South perfectly. Viviani found the tops of the Apuan Alps covered with a carpet of Galium pyrenaicum – he has got one Asplenium marinum from Corsica, & a dwarf Narthecium the Alpine flora of Corsica & Sardinia he says is very unlike that of Italy – he shewd [sic] me two new Chloras imperfoliata & another – he once found an Erica cinerea & Ulex nanus on the Corniche it is a rarissime ^<19> plant for him – I never saw it or Tetralix out of England. Narcissus Serotinus? unicolor is just coming into flower here in quantities – the weather is hard upon it. also a scarlet ranun[culus]^<20> which seems a very distant variety from those that flower in the Spring of all colours. I have never seen the crimson Lachenalia out of Naples & Rome nor do I know its name for certain but believe it is pendula Pray cultivate Aster Virginianus one of the best. Raddi says Salvia leucantha is hardier than mexicana & grows very large in the open ground those herbaceous plants would do well under your south wall – covering the roots with ashes Salvia linearis which I never saw till now is very pretty indeed. have you thought of a new greenhouse yet? where is it to be? There is here a M^r Rüpel ^<21> just come from Egypt – I have not heard his story yet but I shall find him out. They say here Lord Grey is to head the opposition – I am at a loss to conceive on what principle now M^r Canning ^<22> is gone & I sh^d think he was above the everyday opposition of taking the contre ^<23> side of every question that the Ministers are pour Have you seen M^r Baillie who I hear has been at Bowood ^<24> –

Yours Affly
W F S

Henry F. Talbot Esq
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham

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Notes:

1. Prof Antoine Bertoloni (1793–1868), Italian botanist.

2. Domenico Viviani (1772–1840), botanist.

3. Joseph (Giuseppe) Raddi (1770–1829), Italian botanist .

4. Carlo Allioni (1725–1804), botanist.

5. Probably George Augustus Wallis (1770-1847), Scottish born painter resident in Florence who also was an art dealer and served as a representative of art dealers.

6. See Doc. No: 01445.

7. Correggio’s painting The Madonna Reposing, also known as La Zingarella. [See Doc. No: 01454, and Doc. No: 01600].

8. Antonio Allegri (Correggio) (1494–1534), Italian painter.

9. Possibly Onofrio Marinari (1627–1715).

10. Salvator Rosa (1615–1673), painter of the Neapolitan school.

11. Joseph Fesch (1763–1830), Cardinal.

12. Ernesto Mauri (1791–1836), Italian botanist.

13. The battle of Navarino on 20 October 1827, in which the British defeated the Turkish navy. The battle established the independence of Greece.

14. John George Charles Fox Strangways (1803–1859), MP.

15. Charles Grey, 2^nd Earl Grey (1764–1845), statesman, subsequently the prime minister under whom the Parliamentary Reform Act of 1832 was passed.

16. Henry Peter Brougham (1778–1868), later Baron Brougham and Vaux, lord chancellor (1831–1834). In 1827 Brougham, a Whig, changed sides to join Canning’s government, leaving Lord Grey in opposition.

17. Possibly Gibbs Crawford Antrobus, the great-nephew of Sir Edmund Antrobus. [See Doc. No: 01823].

18. Fog.

19. Written off the edge of page.

20. Most rare.

21. Eduard Wilhelm Peter Simon Rüppell (1794–1884), German zoologist and traveller.

22. George Canning (1770–1827), statesman known for his liberal policies as foreign secretary (1807–1809, 1822–1827), and as prime minister for four months during 1827.

23. ‘Contre pour’: counter for.

24. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.