Florence
Feb– 16 –
Dear Henry
You are dawdling terribly about your tour – if you wait till you hit on a plan for combining the Andes & Caucasus in one tour, you will wait long. Persoon <1> says N. serotinus has petala nivea spatha multiflora <2> – which answers to præcox unicolor flowering in December. I believe bulbous plants & some others that form their flower below ground & push it up ready made instead of developing it afterwards, are influenced by the preceding season which ripens & perhaps effects some chimical change in their juices which induces them to spring independently of the weather above ground – An early spring is less apparent in bulbous plants than in herbaceous &c – they vegetate beneath the snow – & in the South of Europe Spring ought to be dated from the first rains Autumn the true Autumn or seed season, being the dry part of Summer – In the South of Russia where they have a regular hard winter I think there are scarcely any Autumnal flowers. Did you see at Penrice <3> my Stachys Iberica – it is a great improvement on S. recta. The Avalanche <4> that stoped [sic] me fell from Kasibek – I have seen here a Major Bethune<5> who came from Persia that way & says the scenery is magnificent but very close so I suppose it is a gorge like the Col de Tende or rather La Ghiandola. The steamboat goes between Corfu & Ancona – there will be I hope another to Otranto or Barletta – by which route you would see an interesting part of the Apennines & Puglia. I came in a ship of war from Corfu to Naples & was only 4 days in Quarantine & that on board. You should have gone to Georgia when I advised you America will become more accessible every day & by going too soon, you might miss seeing much that will be easily got at in the next six or eight years. The East is daily more difficult. If there are troubles in Russia <6> which is very likely particularly in the South The Turks & Persians will make inroads & spare no Botanists – supposing it safe, military Government is unfavorable to independent researches if they have any reason to be particularly on their guard. You should have gone when Woronzoff <7> was Govr now you see part of his army have marched to pillage his own motherinlaws [sic] house. I ought to have I. Guldenstedtii at Abbotsbury <8> Betonica grandiflora is in the gardens. Scutellaria orientalis ought to have come up at Penrice. The Lysimachia is a variety of ours I think. The Cascine is full of Crocus pusillus. I should tell you some of the Cauc. Campanulas are retracted <9> as having been hastily created. C. urticæfolia is a var. of C. Trachelium. Sarmatica & betonicæfolia are the same &c &c – We want good monographs of Campanula Veronica & Saxifraga – Knautia orientalis is lovely. I suppose you will not stay long at Worthing <10> – now so many of the family are in town. Pray bring (if you come) roots of Scilla Sibirica & amœna – they will be out of flower & portable. They are unknown here – do verna. If you come to Italy en famille come in the summer & take Beoglio – if you come this spring let us go there about May – if it was near the sea it would be perfect
Yr Affte
W T H F S
H. Talbot Esq
31 Sackville Street
London
Worthing <12>
Notes:
1. Christian Hendrik Persoon (1755–1837), botanist.
2. Snowy petals, multiflowered spathe (that is, consisting of several flowers within the spathe).
3. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
4. See Doc. No: 00296. Mt Kasbek is in the Caucasus.
5. Sir Henry Lindsay Bethune (1787-1851), 1st Bart, initially went to Persia on a diplomatic and military mission in 1810. The Persians regarded the officer as a modern version of the mythical hero Rustam, for he was 6 feet 8 inches tall. He was photographed by Hill & Adamson in Edinburgh and died in Persia.
6. From 1826 to 1828 Russia was in war with Persia.
7. Mikhail Semenovich Woronzoff or Vorontsov (1782–1856), appointed governor-general of the southern provinces of Russia in 1823.
8. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
9. That is, they were found to have been misclassified as new species and the classification had had to be withdrawn.
10. WHFT was at Worthing in January 1826. [See Doc. No: 01339].
11. Wade Browne. [See Doc. No: 01328].
12. Readdressed in another hand.