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Document number: 02626
Date: 04 Mar 1833
Dating: 1833 confirmed, reply to 02622
Recipient: HOOKER William Jackson
Author: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Collection: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Collection number: EL 6.229
Last updated: 29th April 2012

London <1>
March 4th

My Dear Sir

I have desired my banker to pay the sum <2> mentioned to the Norwich Yarmouth Bank - If they make any mistake, & it is not received I trust you will let me know.

If you figure the Arabis rosea <3> (which I sent this morning) I hope you will give me a copy of the plate, and of the letterpress belonging to it, to send to the gentleman who furnished me with the specimens <4> -

Today I saw in the Hortl Society's <5> garden Acacia decurrens in flower, having stood the winter in the open ground (not against a wall) and not protected by a mat. A proof of a mild winter.

I send you a plant that flowered in my greenhouse lately, which I wish to know if you can name with certainty. It is very sweetscented. Leaves long very narrow and ciliated. It is conjectured by Lindley <6> to be the Hyacinthus spicatus. <7> Sibthorp. <8>

The history of the plant is this. In April 1826 I gathered its seeds, already quite ripe, in the island of Zante, and not having seen the flower, sowed them with care when I returned home. The plants grew so slowly that they are now in flower for the first time. I have a great interest in knowing its name, having gathered it in so remote & beautiful a spot.

Yours most truly
H. F. Talbot.


Notes:

1. This letter is a reply to Doc. No: 02622.

2. See Doc. No: 02607, and Doc. No: 02613.

3. See Doc. No: 02586.

4. Rev Townshend Selwyn (1783-1853), botanist, Vicar of Kilmington, Somerset, and Canon of Gloucester. [See Doc. No: 02611].

5. Horticultural Society of London.

6. Prof John Lindley (1799-1865), botanist.

7. See Doc. No: 00279.

8. John Sibthorp (1758-1796), author of the Flora Gręca.