Florence
July 16
My dear Henry –
You are tiresome – you could not surely suspect me of confounding O. narbonense <1> with pyrenaicum which grows in Somersetshire, it is pyramidale that I take to be the same as Narbonense.
I went yesterday with Raddi <2> to spend the day at Monte <Senacio?>, on a hill above Pratolino, we found Carduus eriophorus, Dianthus plumarius, from which our garden pinks come, a Scutellaria which looks almost like an aconite, a woolly stachys with prickly calyx, carduus nutans, centaurea <calistrapa?>, Jasione montana very large, Scabiosa integrifolia, tenuifolia & arvensis very fine purple – O. nidus avis <3> – Lilium Croceum very fine – Malva moschata – rosa collina – Euphrasia officinalis – Polygala rosea, cærulea, flava, will that please you – Campanula rapunculus, trachelium, persicifolia extremely large – a simple leaved bushy genista with hairy pods no thorns – sedum reflexum, dasyphyllum, & another quite new – with white flowers & leaves in whirls. Prunella vulgaris blue, laciniata very large, white, lilac or blue, Vicia pisiformis, cracca, pseudocracca & sepium – Lathyrus latifolius – pratensis. Delphinium consolida, Xeranthemum inapertum – Dorycnium herbaceum Prenanthes purpurea & muralis, Sedum telephium Melittis melissophyllum, melissa calaminthe, & there is a very pretty walk to some holy grots & cells on the side of a steep woody mountain looking to the Apennines – we saw at a considerable distance below us a large patch of orange which we took for lilies – but the place was not accessible however we got near enough to see it was Hemerocallis fulva on the ridge of a hill branching off from the Mte Senacio or Asinacio (should it not have been Ponte?) is Asphodelus ramosus var: non ramosus, spicâ simplici flore majore <4>– There is a fine wood of silverfir <sic> which they call here Abies & I suppose was the Abies of the Romans. on the rocks Saxifraga rotundiflora foliis crassionibus – Serapias latifolia – Veronica officinalis – & melampyrum arvense & Nemorosum of which last as you never met & it is not to be seen in England I send you a bit in hopes it will not be quite spoilt before it reaches you – but it is not so fine or so abundant as in the north – Its coma is not so cærulea <5> & the spike is too lax. There were Convall. polygonatum & Raddi has seen there Fumaria cava & Doron. Padalian The Oleanders here delight me Raddi has seen Melastomas as large & handsome. – Do you know Euphorbia Portlandica Pityusa – It must have been ceratocarpa with entire petals tho Viviani <6> calls them setigerous – do you know that pretty Camp. lanuginosa – your specimen of Portlandica never came does it signify in Euphorbias if they have all their flowers in a top umbel or up the stalk like Characias?
I have got the Shakspeare by the new Attaché <7> this moment – I send you a Sy<illegible> do you know Dana aquilegifolia
Henry Talbot Esq
31 Sackville Street
I send C. lanuginosa – I have an idea cyclamen & Asarum must be allied & thereby <illegible> Aristolochiæ <Arouleæ?> & Orchideæ –
Do you know Delph. Sinense it is the finest blue I ever saw – I am disappointed in Sedum cæruleum it is too straggling like galiodes – on its Corsican rocks it may look better there is a blue one in Siberia but I dont know what like
Notes:
1. Ornithogalum Narbonense.
2. Joseph (Giuseppe) Raddi (1770–1829), Italian botanist.
3. Ophrys nidus avis.
4. With simple spike and large flower.
5. Its leafage is not so blue.
6. Domenico Viviani (1772–1840), author of Floræ Libycæ (Genoa: Pagano, 1824).
7. Possibly Mr Mitford. See Doc. No: 00314, Doc. No: 01281, and Doc. No: 01069, which date this document to 1825.