Glasgow.
Novr 24th 1822
My dear Sir
I had, some time ago, the pleasure of receiving the little collection of plants you were kind enough to leave for me with Messrs Treuttell & Wurtz, <1> & had the gratification of finding some that were quite new to my collection & others that are interesting from their locality, or the notes you have made upon them. Cardamine latifolia, Seriola Attmensis, Echium calycinum, Daucus mauritanicus, Anemone pavonina & Allium album I never possessed native specimens of before; &, as such, even the smallest specimens are valuable: but if you should visit the countries where these are found again, I hope you will be so circumstanced as to be able to collect larger portions of the plants. Your Hieracium with an oblongo-elliptical, petiolated & remarkably hispid root-leaf is new to me altogether & I wish heartily we could get more. Fraga Vaillantii of Lapeyrouse <2> is now generally called Potentilla splendens. It is a rare plant. Your Fern, from Nice, with the long & lone pinnæ, is Pteris cretica. That from La grande Chartreuse & Grenoble, marked “Asplenium”, is the Aspidium Halleri of Willd. <3> (Asp. Fontanum of Swartz.) It belongs to that division of the Genus, “indivisus lateralibus”, along with Asp. Filix fœminæ, which is considered by Mr Brown <4> to be a true Asplenium. Your Allium, “from Como”, is A. sphærocephalum. That of “Hirschsprung, Canton of St Gallen” is A. oleraceum: – & that from the Clausenberg, on the verge of perpetual snow, is Allium sch œnoprasum. It is often very alpine & grows by the little lake on the M. Cenis.
I hope you have, this autumn, had much success in your botanical excursions. If you meet with any zealous collector of Italian plants through whom I could obtain those species peculiar to the country, either in purchase, or exchange, I should be glad to be made acquainted with it. I have in contemplation a work in English something on the plan of my friend De Candolle’s Univ. Flora <5>, which renders it necessary that I should have as extensive an Herbarium as possible to refer to. My friend Dr Taylor <6> has been with me lately & we have been working together at the 2d edn of our Musc. Brit. <7> & have prepared characters & descriptions of the Hepaticæ to the Musci foliosi. Raddi <8> has published a work on the Ricciæ, Marchantiæ &c, which I want to refer to; but have never seen. Perhaps you would be kind enough to procure me a copy. Raddi’s arrangement of the Jungæ I have had from the Author. Is there any general Flora of Italy or of any of the Italian states published? If there is, & if they are not costly you (either from their size or coloured plates) you would greatly oblige me by procuring them for me, as I have not a single Flora of any of those countries, except indeed the Flora Pedemontana, <9> & Savi Trattato degli Alberi della Toscana. <10> You will probably meet with Botanists who study the marine Algæ on the shores of the Mediterranean, some parts of which are very rich in Fuci. Is Risso <11> still at Nice? & does he attend yet to Botany? I once wrote to him through the family of the Gurneys who were staying at Nice, but never obtained an answer. In the hope that I may be favoured with a letter from you,
I remain, Dear Sir, Your very sincere & faithful friend
W. J. Hooker.
W. H. F. Talbot Esqre
(Floreum)<12>
No 31. Sackville street
London.
Notes:
1. Treuttel & Wurtz, booksellers, Paris. Hooker had an arrangement with them to enclose packages from other people when sending parcels of books to him.
2. Baron Philippe Picot de Lapeyrouse (1744–1818), botanist; wrote the Histoire abrégée des plantes des Pyrénées and Figures de la flore des Pyrénées: avec des descriptions, des notes critiques et des observations… (Paris: du Pont, 1795–1801).
3. Karl Ludwig Willdenow (1765–1812), professor of natural history and botany at Berlin.
4. Robert Brown (1773–1858), botanist. [See Doc. No: 00264].
5. Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (1778-1841), Swiss botanist. The work referred to is probably the Regni vegetabilis systema naturale… (Paris: Treuttel et Würtz, 1818–1821), an undertaking so large that only two volumes were completed. He subsequently began a reduced version, the Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis.
6. Thomas Taylor, MD (d. 1848).
7. William Jackson Hooker and Thomas Taylor, Muscologia Britannica: containing the mosses of Great Britain and Ireland… (1st edition, London: Longman, Hurst etc, 1818; 2nd edition, London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1827).
8. Joseph (Giuseppe) Raddi (1770–1829), Italian botanist.
9. Carlo Allioni (1725–1804), Flora Pedemontana… (Turin: J. M. Briolus, 1785).
10. Gaetano Savi (1769–1844), author of Trattato degli alberi della Toscana (Florence: G. Piatti, 1811).
11. Antonio or Antoine Risso (1777–1845), natural scientist.
12. 'Full of flowers'.