31 Sackville St London
Febry 21st 1826 <1>
Dear Sir
Next year it will be a great pleasure to me to accept of your kind invitation to Norwich, and to examine Linneas’s Herbarium; at present I am on the eve of a journey to the Ionian Islands partly with the intention of studying the Flora of that country, and partly from other motives. I shall take with me Prodromus Florae Gracae, <2> can you recommend me any other work as likely to be useful. Is there any genus or Family of Plants to which you would particularly direct my attention in that country.
On my last tour in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austrie <sic>, & Carinthia I collected a great number of specimens & brought them home in considerable perfection. I have numerous duplicates having sometimes gathered a great quantity of specimens of the same thing, when I knew it to be rare. I have a great number undetermined. some of them very beautiful plants; as for instance a Lilium exactly resembling the figure of one in Loddiges’ Botanical Cabinet <3> (I think he calls it L. pemilum) tab. 358 I found it in some plenty on a barren stony hill halfway between Nice & Tende. I found the Fritillaria lutea of Marschall Bieberstein at the elevation of about 5000 feet in an alpine meadow of the Col de Tende, which is I think the only station hitherto observed in Europe. I shall be happy to consult with you about these & many others when next I have the pleasure of seeing you. I have a collector at present in Sardinia, who reports very favorably of the productions of that island.
I beg my respects to Lady Smith <4>
and remain
Dear Sir
Yours most truly
H.F. Talbot
Sir J.E. Smith
President of the Linnean Society
Norwich
Notes:
1. The reply to this letters is Doc. No: 01385.
2. John Sibthorp, Floræ Græcæ Prodromus ( London: 1806–1813).
3. Conrad Loddiges, George Cooke, The botanical cabinet, consisting of coloured delineations of plants, from all countries, with a short account of each, directions for management (a serial publication: London, J. & A. Arch etc., 1817–1835).
4. Lady Pleasance Smith (1773–1877).