London
1 Decr
My dear Henry
I am detained for a few days in town for the formality of seeing Lord Granville <1> so I cannot say when I shall join you - Pray give me a line to say what plants you find at Melbury <2> & how they look - Webb <3> is in town very sorry to have missed you - I breakfasted with him today & saw some part of his Museum for which he has a room on purpose - & a very good library He has lately received a hortus siccus from Montpellier <4> which would have interested you & which you might have assisted him in naming as he does not know all the plants of that country - He found a very interesting new Scabiosa on Mt Ida which has been figured in Bot. Mag. <5> as Scabiosa Webbii it is between S. tomentosa & S. Sp[illegible]iotica - he would have been very glad to see your Alpine Scabiosa & indeed your Herbarium in general He says his Gardener has succeeded very well in raising Styrax officinale Quercus Ęgilops & several other uncommon shrubs & trees of the Levant which he sent home -
Pray look at my little Paliurus it ought to be shedding its leaves - Write me a line to say when you go to Moreton <6> as it is there I expect to meet you now I have heard the Abbotsbury scheme <7> is given up - At Sir T. Neaves<8> the other day I saw one of the finest cork trees - & Alaternus - in England Webb heard from Tenore <9> lately he is in progress with his 3d vol & in the meantime proposes to bring out 2 vols in 8vo on the botany of 20 miles round Naples a scheme I highly approve of Pollinis 2d vol is out.<10> I am to dine with Webb tomorrow at the Linnean Club - he has been in Scotland & found several Lapland plants -
Yr
W T H F S
H. Talbot Esqr
Notes:
1. Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville (1773-1846), ambassador at Paris (1824-1841).
2. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
3. Philip Barker Webb (1793-1854), English botanist - see Doc. No: 00418.
4. Collection of dried plant specimens; Montpelier is in southern France.
5. Mount Ida, Greece. William Jackson Hooker and Samuel Curtis, Curtis's Botanical Magazine (London: S. Curtis, and Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper)
6. Moreton, Dorset: home of the Frampton family.
7. See Doc. No: 00448.
8. Sir Thomas Neave, 2nd Baronet (1761-1848), whose home was Dagham Park, Essex.
9. Michel Tenore (1780-1861), Italian botanist & traveller.
10. Ciro Pollini of Verona (1782-1833), Italian lichenologist.