Vienna
2 July
My dear Henry
I wish your letter told me more of your garden – I hope to see it in the course of the summer or autumn – I enclose you a list of Dalmatian plants, & a curious paper of Jacquins <1> on the drought of last year which was extraordinary particularly taking the quarters from 1 April 1834 to 1 April 1835. What did you find out with Plossl’s glasses? <2> I have got from Bertoloni <3> the 1st part 2d vol of Flora Italica <4> for you. Does not Emily <5> give you some of her subdivisions of my seeds? I trust to her for scattering them abroad into all worthy gardens.
I saw for the first time the other day Anisodus – a great Atropa as big as a Datura. It is odd in almost every large botanic garden one finds something new. Chrysanthemum abrotanifolium, Aster canus Campanula muralis, altaica, pendula, Onobrychis radiata, Astragalus vimineus, [Laponanici?], Clematis angustifolia, elongata Iris Monneri, ruthenica, plicata, notha, fuscata dichotoma spatulata, lucida vera, biglumis which is nothing but a spurious sort of spuria, Syringa Iosikea (Transylvanian Lilac) a sort of hybrid between Privet & Lilac, many new Cytisi, Genista &c Robinias more than I ever saw, & Roses – & Prunus, 5 species of dwf Almonds, dwf Philadelphus dwf Rhamni Loniceras, yellow roses, & other dwarfs. Prunus prostrata, spirea decumbens & some curious Euphorbias which you shall have by the bye I have sent you for years all the Euphorbia seeds I could get you should have a good suite of them. I am promised a complete Hortus siccus <6> of Saxifrages, of which they have many more than I knew of, some S <7> Schraderi, crustata, Gmelini, condensata, trifurcea, Burseriana &c very pretty – Do you know Ranunculus Anemonoides? I saw it for the first time this year & Teucrium Laxmanni, Phlomis lacinata & Samia, Saponaria glutinosa, Silene livida, alpestris, fabaria, Arenaria cephalotos, montana, Dianthoides, linifolia, Fraxinella Daurica, Scutellaria grandiflora, lupulina, orientalis, Cladium germanicum Orchis palustris fl. pleno. Rubus hirtus, Celtis cordifolia, Cratægus stipulacea & heterophylla.
Among Boragineæ there are the Mattia umbellata, Ellisia nyctelea, Echium petreum which ought to be a new genus. Maclura aurantiaca a very fine shrub. Virgilia lutea. Several varieties of common Lilac & Philadelphus & a fine collection of trees & shrubs. Fagus pendula, 10 or 12 Tilias, as many Fraxinus, & a little rose the least I ever saw said to grow wild in Franconia, called Rosa aciphylla. Cytisus Weldeni, Spartium Etnense, Eleagnus argentea, Vitex incisa, Nitraria Schoberi, Euonymus nanus, Sophora pendula, Dalecarlian birch & various American & Siberian dwarf birches – Potentilla Salessovii (shrubby white). I found the other day wild Rosa tomentosa, & pimpinellifolia Digitalis ambigua… adieu
Yrs
W F S
Notes:
1. Prof Joseph Franz Frieherr von Jacquin (1766–1839), Austrian botanist.
2. Georg Simon Plössl (1794–1868), Viennese optician. The reference to his ‘glasses’ is possibly one to his microscope eyepieces, or “glasses”, that is, a lens, which he was famous for.
3. Prof Antoine Bertoloni (1793–1868), Italian botanist.
4. Antonio Bertoloni (1775–1869), Flora Italica… (Bologna: 1833–1854).
5. Amelia ‘Emily’ Matilda Murray (1795–1884), author.
6. That is, ‘dried garden’, a reference collection of dried plant specimens.
7. This stands for Saxifraga.