Aug 20

My dear Henry

Here are some lichens, from the woods – what are they. are you in France or no? You ought ab^t this time to receive a valuable packet from me but not all for you – do with it as there in desired – I have found all the vaccinia in our w^ds except oxycocc or Glukva as they call it–^<1> I send you the best specimens of lichen I can see but am very ignorant – the high M^ts you see are the hills of Pulkova ^<2> to the S.E. Dondoroff to the S. & Bronnaia to the W.^<3> they are not very high I have been on all of them – Dondoroff is celebrated for its rare plants I look^d in vain for Limodorum Boreale & found only Campanula –. I know not what – I am making a small collection of the plants of hereabouts – There are heaps of Pyrola in seed but all as rotten as possible – On Dondoroff I found the pretty Lonicera Sibirica – but as there was once a garden in that wood it may not be truly wild as it is a fashionable Shrubbery plant about Peter ^<4> – The Fins in [?]^<5> this neighbourhood live on Toad stools & when I give them good whole some mushrooms they throw them away – is it not perverse? Tell me all the new discoveries –

Y^r Aff:
W T H F S

Bekova^<6>
Aug 20

the white from Gatchina, uncertain if wild or tame – the yellow from the quay bet[ween] the exchange & the Neva–^<6>

Cerastium
Potentilla

I am in pain till I hear of the safe arrival of my plants at Oxford. ^<7>

W. H. F. Talbot Esq–

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Notes:

1. Oxycocc[us] = cranberry.

2. About 20 miles/30 km south of St Petersburg.

3. Unidentified, apparently hilly, areas visible from St Petersburg.

4. St Petersburg.

5. Possibly missing a word, torn away under seal; the 'Fins' were ethnic Finns.

6. Bekova, an unidentified village apparently around St Petersburg.

6. Gatchina was 28 miles/50 km south of St Petersburg. The old Stock Exchange was in St Petersburg, built 1805-1810; the River Neva runs from Lake Ladoga through St Petersburg to the Baltic Sea.

7. See Doc. No: 00781, which dates this document to 1817.