F. ^<1>
[13 –?] Aug–

My dear Henry

I am just returned from a tour with what success I will tell you – I went to Prato fiorito – too late – the grass was mowing – the weather a driving storm – & the flowers near over The climate of the Mountains I imagine to be more steady in its Seasons than that of the vallies I found several plants new to me Cacalia alpina – Allium nigrum – Dianthus plumarius, Parnassia palustris – an Astragalus – a Serratula a very pretty pink Allium grows everywhere on rocks in the vallies of the baths of Lucca which Mr Lysons told me he had seen in Switzerland. I went to Ponte Nero a very pretty walk thro groves of Chestnut – at the bridge are some fine rocks. I returned by a road I recommend you when you come to Italy again & want a new road to cross the Apennines instead of the dull Bologna, it is a new road just passable between Lucca & Modena – laid out in a fine style & will have posts when finished – you go thro a valley covered with woods of beech & Chestnut – & cross M^te Rondinaio one of the highest of the Apennines from which a man told me you could see Elba – Corsica Sardinia, & the M^ts of France, I suppose the Estrelles. I suppose from some of these points you must see the Alps also – I slept at Fiumalbo – a village down in a deep hole in a pretty little Welch looking valley but very cold – surrounded with green sloping meadows & fine trees. I then recrossed the ridge by the Abbetone or great silver fir wood where the snow sometimes lies two years together – The scenery is less fine than the other but you descend by a pretty valley to Ponte Pet[illegible] ^<2> & S. Marcello & the entrance to the val d’Arno by Pistoia is beautiful.

I enclose a specimen of what I take to be your [Χαριεσοα?] which I found in a mead near the Ospedaletto a sort of hospice under the peak of the Rondinaio – It cannot be Bulbocodium because it is not vernum – or Mesendera for the same cause, Persoon ^<3> has but one of both. It is not Colchicum aut: not variegatum it cannot be C. montanum because it had no contemporaneous leaves – Its root is something of a Colchic kind is it Sternbergia Colchiciflora or Pushkinia Scilloides plants unknown to Persoon? It is not Tulipa Celsiana this time – Pray give me your opinion upon it. –

I was too late for Primulas & Gentians of both which there are some species up there plenty of Sedum Monregalense – An Arenaria – Epilopium ^<4> angustifolium Parnassia – a handsome Melissa – & remains of Verastrum – pedicularis – & orchideæ. I wish I had been a month earlier. D. ^<5> Carthusianorum & barbatus are plenty about the baths as also Carlina acanthoides Salvia glutinosa &c Have you got your plants from Thomas I hear the summer at Abbotsbury ^<6> is delightful I hope you will look in there in the course of the fine weather & help name some of the plants –

Y^rs truly
W T H F S

Henry Talbot Esq

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Notes:

1. Florence.

2. Text obscured by blot.

3. Christian Hendrik Persoon (1755–1837), botanist.

4. Misspelling of ‘Epilopium’.

5. Dianthus.

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