[Fox crest]

Abbotsbury ^<1>
Sat^y –

My dear Henry

I was in hopes your letter would have said something about coming this way – Thanks for the Everlasting Californian Pea We used to have the yellow treelupine plentifully here but it is gone out somehow – I should be very glad of any seed some day – I have the pale blue sort –

At last we have had a few delightful springy days, very enjoyable – it has made Agave lucida send up a gigantic flowerspike very unseasonable & unreasonable & two suckers with a lesser spike on each. So many shrubs are preparing for a spring flowering that I tremble for the result.

We have Hed. Gardner. ^<2> but the finest in England is before the Hothouse at Carclew. ^<3> Sir C. ^<4> wrote as if very well the other day – Charlotte ^<5> is there & Jane ^<6> going.

Never think of her going abroad till you get a letter or a specimen from Mentone or elsewhere. I hope she may come here later – now we are obliged to go to Melbury ^<7> & Redlynch ^<8> to look after repairs – which are urgent.

I have done up the Decoy anew, & think of planting it up with A Donax ^<9><,> Pampas grass, & hardy bamboo of which I have 7 – or 8.

Will you ask MacNab ^<10> if he has Chamærops serrulata of Florida – a species I am curious about – Loddiges ^<11> saw my garden this summer & civilly sent me a Palmetto

I wish you could see my Eucalyptus – & the fine ferns I have out of doors – among which Lastrea prolifera – Pteris Cutica – Cystomium falcatum – Lomaria Chilensis & Magellanica <–> Onychium lucidum. Asplenium d^o Polypodium Billardieri – Adiantum Cunninghami – Aspid. Despanum – Allantodia umbrosa & others are conspicuous.

Can you tell me the readiest way to fix vegetable colours?

Y^r aff
W^m

---

Notes:

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

2. Hedychium gardnerianum.

3. Carclew, Cornwall, 3 mi N of Penryn: seat of Sir Charles Lemon.

4. Sir Charles Lemon (1784–1868), politician & scientist; WHFT’s uncle.

5. Charlotte Louisa 'Charry' Traherne, née Talbot (1800–1880), WHFT’s cousin.

6. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).

7. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.

8. A Strangways property in Somerset. The earls of Ilchester were also barons of Redlynch.

9. Arundo Donax.

10. James McNab, director of the Botanic Garden, Edinburgh.

11. George Loddiges (1786–1846), who ran the firm of nurserymen established in Hackney by his father, Conrad Loddiges.