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Document number: 976
Date: 04 Jun 1822
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: HOOKER William Jackson
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Last updated: 14th July 2010

Glasgow.
June 4th 1822

My dear Sir

I am much gratified by the kind letter you have been so obliging as to write to me, as well as by the botanical information it contains.

I had not been able to examine fresh specimens of Pinguicula grandiflora when I wrote my remarks upon it in the Fl. Scotica <1>. I have since verified what you say & have given a figure of it in one of the latter Nos of the Fl. Londinensis. <2> It is a most beautiful plant & we have it now in blossom in the Bot. Garden.

I am glad you have met with the Scilla verna in the Pyrenées. Of the Scilla Lilio-Hyacinthus I know nothing & should be extremely obliged to you for pyrenæan specimens of it, & Sc. verna, as well as Hyacinthus orientalis. I have turned my thoughts myself this year to the Pyrenées; but shall not be able to accomplish my wishes as I have so much upon my hands with the British & Exotic plants: & another reason, when my course of Lectures will begin later than they did this year, such an excursion will be quite out of my power. Should you have any other duplicates of plants which are peculiar to the Pyrenées you will afford me great pleasure by laying by a few for me. I would say the same of the plants of Italy which will be the object of your study this summer. I have many from the Milanese but no other part of Italy.

Do you know Raddi <3> of Florence? Professor of Botany there. I think you will be pleased with his acquaintance, as he seems passionately fond of Botany & has written on the Ferns of the Brazils, & the Jungermanniæ & other Hepaticæ of Italy.

You would oblige him & me if you would take charge for him of a copy of my Flora Scotica which I wish to give him. This copy will be given to any one you may trouble yourself to send to Hurst, Robinson & Co, Booksellers, Cheapside with the accompanying note. Tell him Raddi I have already had engraved some of his Brazilian Ferns & that they will soon appear in my Exotic Flora. <4>

Your information respecting Primula elatior is interesting as I think it establishes beyond a doubt the identity of the species.

The notice you take of Goldie <5> is most kind & liberal on your part. With a little pecuniary assistance which I afforded him he is again gone to Canada & will return in the winter. I do think him a most deserving man & should you be in this country another year when he may again revisit America, & when I hope to induce some other friends to aid him in his pursuits I will let you know.

Do you go by Geneva & Berne into Italy? & have you any botanical acquaintance there? or do you wish for any? At Milan too I have a friend who knows the plants of that country. It will give me much pleasure if I can be of service to you in any way, or if I can send you any specimens of plants of this or any other country, that I am likely to possess.

I am preparing a new edition of Musc. Brit. <6> which will go to press in the Autumn.

I am, my dear Sir, Very truly & faithfully yours
W. J. Hooker

H. Talbot Esqre
31 Sackville street
London.


Notes:

1. William Jackson Hooker, Flora scotica, or A description of Scottish plants… (London and Edinburgh: Hurst, Robinson, 1821).

2. William Curtis (1746–1799), Flora Londinensis, containing a history of the plants indigenous to Great Britain… (London: G. Graves, 1817–1828), volumes 4 and 5 by William Jackson Hooker.

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

4. William Jackson Hooker, Exotic Flora: containing figures and descriptions of new, rare or otherwise interesting exotic plants, … (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood and T. Cadell, 3 volumes, 1823–1827).

5. See Doc. No: 01057.

6. William Jackson Hooker and Thomas Taylor, Muscologia Britannica: containing the mosses of Great Britain and Ireland… (1st edition, 1818), 2nd edition (London: Longman, Rees, Orme etc., 1827).

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