Naples
Oct 7 1831

My dear Henry

Tenore ^<1> gives you many thanks for the promptness with which you have executed his commission, which it seems had weighed long on his mind – & begs you will not think of paying anything for the seeds especially as he fears they will be capita mortua. ^<2> I on the other hand hope you will sow them, without waiting for Spring, it will be curious to see what come up.

My arrival here in July was too late to make up a good collection of spring bulbs, not having looked out for them before which is quite necessary in this climate of rapid vegetation & decay. I sent home a box of garden bulbs, as oxalis, amaryllis &c which should be arrived & of which you are welcome to a share if you will ask for it in the right quarter. Did you not receive any from me from Rome? The autumnal & vernal flora are so distinct here it is impossible to combine both in one expedition.

Your Sca. ^<3> columbaria was smoked out by the Quarantine, to Tenore’s disappointment as he has been dancing about that synonym to various species the last 20 years & has not fixed it yet. How beautiful Hedychium coronarium is out of doors! At the Villa Camaldoli ^<4> there are now come splendid outdoor specimens of exotics – A Banksia covered with flower, many tropical Lauri, Araucaria & Pinus Canariensis large, & many Australasians. A large Casuarina 30 ft high in flower is odd.

I wish you had told me more of Lacock & your garden – Amaryllis belladonna has naturalised itself in the ravines at Castellamare – I am going to send a large quantity of tree & shrub seeds to Sir C. Lemon ^<5> of whom I dare say you can get some if they arrive in England by May it is time enough to sow them. Did you find Linaria repens in the I of Wight? I never saw it wild anywhere else. I have often thought of monographizing the Tulips they lie in a nutshell [illustration]

I send you some seeds which I must leave to you to divide with Penrice ^<6> – I hear of a Caper at Abbotsbury ^<7> which gives me great pleasure – Gussones Flora Sicula ^<8> is still incomplete – I wish you would cultivate ferns – it is difficult to send them home & I do not know what may be had in the Nurseries – I like Cheilanthis odora & lentigera. Woodwardia radicans – Onoclea sensibilis – Pteris cutica &c I am particularly anxious to succeed with Conv. Cantabrica & Erica ramulosa – Do you know the former vix se transplantari sinit, ^<9> so you must sow it in pots in which it can stay, & then multiply by cuttings. I like Euphorbia fruticosa –

Your aff^te
W F S

Pray enquire about the ferns that I may know it is worth while sending them or not. Would it hurt Lacock to plant creepers inside the terrace wall & let them hang over as they do in Italy with great effect? How do your weeping Cypresses go on? I have been cultivating some roots of Gussones Colchicum Cupani but it is only C. montanum over again – I had a delightful tour to Pestum, la Cava &c – & found plenty of nice plants tho in Sept^r the purple & white Satureia montana took my fancy particularly as a rock plant, all about the hills of Salerno &c I have just seen a new Autumnal Crocus sent from Georgia by Fischer. ^<10> it is nudiflorous & blue with a greyish yellow throat – in short the colours of an Iris which is interesting for the natural series. Don Ferdinando Giordani is going into the Cilento & has promised me a batch of C. odorus which is a great favourite of mine being nearly pink – or dilutissimé lilacinus. ^<11>

(the crocus seems to be Bertolonis ^<12> medius)

I send you a few things to B. St ^<13> enquire, if you have not received them

Henry F. Talbot Esq
31 Sackville Street

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Notes:

1. Michel Tenore (1780–1861), Italian botanist & traveller.

2. Dead chaff.

3. Scabiosa.

4. See Doc. No: 00418, and also Doc. No: 00160.

5. Sir Charles Lemon (1784–1868), politician & scientist; WHFT’s uncle.

6. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.

7. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.

8. Giovanni Gussone (1787–1866), Flora Sicula, sive Descriptiones et Icones Plantarum rariorum Siciliæ Ulterioris (Naples: 1829).

9. Scarcely allows itself to be transplanted.

10. One of the two Fischers WTFS met in St Petersburg. [See Doc. No: 00334, Doc. No: 00790, Doc. No: 00426].

11. Very dilute lilac colour.

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

13. 31 Burlington Street, London home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.