My dear Mr T.
I have now heard of 6 or 7 Plants of the paradoxical Cytisus similar to ours besides one of Vivians which mixed with the mongrels has produced a few shoots of the Laburnum & not any of C. purpureus – this Plant as well as mine was purchased at Lees in 1833 from a parcel which had been sent over from Paris for sale, & as I suspect that all these Marvels may be traced to this one importation I shall be glad to know where yours was procured? John<1> has at Penllergare observed a shoot from the Stock of a common Beech on which the purple Variety had been grafted with the Leaves of a completely intermediate Color & I encreasingly doubt whether C. Adami may not have originated accidentally in the same way from a Stock of C. Laburnum on which C. purpureus had been grafted –
Thanks for your Specimens of Talbotype & I rejoice at your continued progress towards perfection – I have not the ‘pencillings’<2> here to compare with it, but the Sketch of York Minster appears to me to excel either of your published plates
Very truly Yours
L W Dillwyn
28 Lansdown Crescent
Cheltenham
Sept. 17. 1845
Notes:
1. John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810-1882), Welsh photographer, JP & High Sheriff, married to WHFT's cousin Emma.
2. The reference was to WHFT's The Pencil of Nature, of which four parts had already been published.