Abbotsbury ^<1>
15 April

Dear Henry

I never had so doleful a tale to tell of the garden as this year – thanks to the theory of chances, we are quit of such winters for the next century – so I shall immediately begin to plant over again everything I have lost, which I think a degree of resolution seldom equalled.

It is quite a disgrace to the climate to have Narcissus, Sedums Saxifrages, Gladiolus, Trichonemas &c frozen or rotted in the ground!

We have lost nearly all your little wild Tazetta of Genoa, such a general favorite from its delicacy & fragrance ditto paper Narcissus, ditto præcox, ditto double polyanthus Narcissus – & one particular variety from Naples with narrow sharp reflex petals which I had encreased & is all gone dead. I had no idea that one narcissus was tenderer than another, or I should have put one at least on the terrace – where I believe none are destroyed tho’ the flower is shabby for this season. The fine Dutch yellow & other sorts seem hardier than the original Italian natives.

We have however preserved a few interesting plants such as Convolvulus Cantabrica & Cneorum, Linum flavum & cæspitosum (not monogynum nor suffruticosum) Rhodod. arboreum & campanulatum & hybrids, Daphne odora, Pancratium maritimum, Ilex perado, Clematis montana, Yucca aloifolia, Spiræa Nepalensis, Rosa berberifolia, Leptospermum marginatum & I hope pubescens – Onoclea sensibilis Pteris Cretica, Scilla maritima, Iris tuberosa & scorpioides & persica – The Edwardsias that were so very fine, are in a doubtful state – Pinus excelsa seems quite hardy – so is not longifolia – but Halepensis & Brutia have stood – & Juniperus Bermudiana. Fuchsias have become herbaceous as well as many trees & shrubs.

I think Ribes sanguineum is one of the best introductions I have seen a long time, it is now lovely as are also our dwarf Iris – our almond tree – & all the fruit trees – The only Cape plants that have survived are a few oxalis – & hybrid gladiolus – & Myrsine Africana or retusa Primula Palinuri, Campanula muralis & fragilis, stand perfectly – Trillium erectum Ornithog. exscapum, Androm. calyculata Scilla Italica, Leucoj. pulchellum & plenty of Tulips are in flower – & to my agreable [sic] surprise, the Aleppo tulips of which ten are in flower, all turn out the same as Raddi’s ^<2> Tulip of Florence, even to the pale stripe in the interior petals, which people would tell me was an accidental circumstance, but which I have found in every individual in Italy, & now again in Aleppo. I have one Tulip sort from Col. Chesney, ^<3> which will not flower but mind I prophesy it will have the pale line in it

Y^rs Aff
W F S

Horatia ^<4> has recovered her cold, she takes a small but select cargo with her to Lacock. I fear my Euphorbia dendroides is dead – Pithyusa is not. Veneta & Myrsinites as fine as ever – & Persica – a new one. The German oxlip turns out very pretty but scentless. Even Anthyllis Barba jovis has not perished, but Anagyris has – as also Carob – Lentiscus – but not Terebinthus nor [Ritacia?] vera which surprises me.

Dorchester April sixteen 1838 W F Strangways
H. F. Talbot Esq
31 Sackville Street ^<5>
London

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Notes:

1. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.

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

3. Francis Rawdon Chesney (1789–1872), explorer of the Euphrates.

4. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.

5. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.