Glasgow.
Dec. 11. 1835.
My dear Sir
There are few persons who have any pretensions to the name of Botanist who are less competent to give an opinion upon plants of the Ionian isles than myself: – & that for this very good reason, because I have never had any opportunity of studying them: & my Herbarium is miserably poor in species. I shall however give you the best account I can of your numbered specimens.
No 1. Poa, no stem & no leaves – but judging from the flowers not far removed from P. trivialis
No 2. Hypericum, without flower: but I think a narrow-leaved var. of Hyp. ciliatum.
No 3. Campanula – no foliage. The flowers certainly, as you observe coming very near C. patula: but the calyx seems longer than the flo corolla.
4. Cacaulis [sic]. I can neither find any species in my Herbm nor in De Candolle <1> which will agree with this. It is remarkable for the Involucras & involucels which are broad & have a broad white margin.
5. Alyssum. This agrees with Alyssum rostratum in my Herbarium (De C. no 287. <2>
6. Poa – near P. pratensis, but the calyx-val[illegible] are blunter, not ribbed & the ligule of the leaf is different.
7. Too imperfect to determine. I believe very young plants of Xanthium spinosum are not unlike this.
10. 8. Hypericum; exactly H. ciliatum. H. dentatum – Loisel. is also the same.
9. Bromus rubens.
8. Plantago cretica L. certainly.
11. Carex gynomane. Bertholoni. <3> C. Linkii is the same.
12.Orchis. quite new to me. I have sent it to Dr Lindley <4> for his opinion.
13. Trifolium not vesiculosum, but certain T. resupinatum.
14. You mark it “V. Syriaca,” I do not know of what author. May it not be a dwarf state of V. filiformis? Or of V. Buxbaumii?
I have given all the particulars I know of poor Drummonds <5> death in the “ Companion to the Botl Magazine <6>” a cheap Journal, which Mr Curtis undertakes & offers to the Subscribers to the Mage <7> at 1d pr. No of 2 sheets & 2 plates! I hope it will be encouraged. I think the Arenaria you allude to is a new species. I shall describe all in the Compn to the Magazine.
In regard to a Gardener: those from the Botl Garden here seem to have high notions & I have heard Mr Murray <8> say expect to obtain (if they have a good character from him), £50 & £60 a year & a House &c. Or if they begin at somewhat lower wages they engage to be advanced yearly. When I lived in Suffolk I took a lad from a neighbouring [illegible deletion] Nursery & gave him further instructions myself & he became an excellent Gardener & exceedingly attached to me. You might do the same if you are much in your Garden.
I am astonished at a person of Martius’ <9> status in Socy selling his Brazilian Plants. But such being the case I should most assuredly wish to have a good set & will thank you to give me all the particulars you can. I always wondered he never would send me any when I asked him. I am very poor in plants from the interior of Brazil: though of South American plants generally I possess very rich collections.
Enclosed you have Trichomanes brevisetum (small specimens to suit the enclosure), Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense & Wilsoni. <10> You will easily see the difference.
Most faithfully Yours,
W. J. Hooker.
H. F. Talbot Esqre
Lacock Abbey.
Notes:
1. Augustin Pyrame de Candolle (1778–1841), probably in Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis … (Paris: Treuttel et Würtz, 1824–1873).
2. No closing bracket.
3. Misspelling for Professor Antoine Bertoloni (1793–1868), Italian botanist.
4. Prof John Lindley (1799–1865), botanist.
5. Thomas Drummond (1793-1835), Scottish botanical collector; died in Cuba in early March 1835.
6. William Jackson Hooker, Companion to the Botanical Magazine; being a journal, containing such interesting botanical information as does not come within the prescribed limits of the magazine… (London: S. Curtis, 1835–1836).
7. William Jackson Hooker, Samuel Curtis, Curtis’s Botanical Magazine… (London: S. Curtis, 1833–).
8. Stewart M Murray (1789-1858), first Curator of the Glasgow Botanic Gardens. [See Doc. No: 00262].
9. Dr Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (1794–1868), German botanist
10. Hymenophyllum Wilsoni was named by Sir W J Hooker after the botanist William Wilson (1799–1871), referred to in Doc. No: 03319.