Florence
May 16 <1>
My dear Henry
I am going to leave this tomorrow morning for Leghorn & then by Lucca to go to Genoa & just write you a few lines to say I have made acquaintance with Raddi <2> & walked over his botanic garden which is the neatest I have seen a long time – He was out when I first called on him, & I was out when he called on me, so I have seen scarcely any thing of him
Terni & Narni I was delighted with Narni I saw by good luck at the very moment of a glorious sunrise thro the arch of Augustus – a perfect natural landscape & the bridge beautiful tho not quite 286 feet high as my Cicerone <3> assured me it was.
At Terni I found Aquilegia vulgaris Asclepias Vincetoxicum Serapias <Insi?>ifolia Veronica montana? A beautiful Silene which I cannot make out & which I charged the guide to shew you – Thlaspi saxatile – Helianthemum marifolium? & one a little larger – perhaps a variety – Raddi says there ought to be several orchideæ there but I did not fall in with them – I hope you will make some excursions there towards Rieti & the Neapolitan frontier the road looks very tempting – or about Narni & its valley.
I am delighted with the appearance of Florence & its valley which is in the Highest state of beauty just now & we have had a good deal of lightning & rain which has cooled the air & left the mountains capped with snow – Raddi almost promises me Ophrys speculum on the road I am going. His account of Brazil quite makes one long to go there – Your flower press is very useful & handy which is just what one wants. I was surprised to find at Terni Euphorbia spinosa – Cytisus sessilifolius, an Erysimum – cheiranthoides Quercus pubescens I think & Pinus probably maritima – & a Sorbus – not in flower.
I hope they have had the benefit of this cool weather at Naples –
Yr Affate
W T H F S
In four days I shall be at Genoa where I stay two days then a day & night will bring me to Turin where I shall stay two more – then four or five days more to Lyons whence I shall go straight to Paris without stopping. Let me hear from you there or in London A Monsieur
Monsieur W. H. F. Talbot
à Florence
Notes:
1. In 1825, WTHFS became Secretary of Legation in Florence. [See Doc. No: 01250].
2. Joseph (Giuseppe) Raddi (1770–1829), Italian botanist.
3. Guide.