31 B. St <1>
31 July
My dear Henry
Your letter is interesting – I think I could give you some plants fit for your Conservatory. I left Mandevillea suaveolens at Abb. <2> already in flower. Convolu. Canariensis is also a nice creeper. Have you the ornamental Rubi? I have got all the Mahonias but one M. Japonica which is not to be had, all out of doors & hope they will flower all of them next year. I mean to get Chamærops excelsa when it is tolerably cheap, but some gardeners throw away anything that does not take directly.
I set my face against the idea of acclimatizing on principle – but I want to prove our climate not to be so Siberian as the French & other Continentals calumniously assume it to be.
Of Australian plants I have 6 Coprosmas – 2 Swammerdamias 1 Cassinia – 6 shrubby Veronicas – 2 Ferns – 1 palm – & various herbaceous plants that have stood out one or more winters & grow & flower beautifully – I want to get all the Madeira & Canary plants – Carolina Georgia & Texas – Chile Chiloe <3> & Patagonia – mountain Cape plants which no body here seems to distinguish from those of the plains –
What is Exostema? Nematanthus I do not know <–> There is not much capability for Orchidaceæ at Abb I have tried Lælias & Odontoglots but they had hardly a fair chance <–> if the old mossy trees of Melbury <4> were transportable to Abb. we might get up some parasitical varieties.
The only quite hardy Canna I know is a pale buff flowered one the others are easily grown but capricious. Hedychiums flower strong & well out of doors but they cannot be trusted for more than one winter. Make them try all these things at Mt Edgcumbe <5>
I shall send your box <6> today.
Yr aff
W F S
Notes:
1. 31 Burlington Street, London home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
2. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
3. A southern province of Chile, including the large island of the same name.
4. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
5. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe.
6. See Doc. No: 06665.
7. Markeaton Hall, Derbyshire, NW of Derby: home of the Mundy family.
8. See Doc. No: 04504.