25 Aug –
Dear Henry
I have been an excursion with Raddi <1> to a mountain called Il Teso or the Extended the nearest of the Alps of Pistoia all which you know look like one from Florence – Il Teso is the best botanising spot I have seen in Tuscany – tho so late in the season we found Gentiana Asclepiadea in the greatest beauty & the remains of G. titriculosa said to be the finest in colour of all alpina, campestris, & it contains also amarella, purpurea, lutea bavarica, acaulis, verna, ciliata, punctata & another – also on the north side which I did not see about as many saxifrages Scornoneca purpurea I saw for the first time – Spergula saginoides, Hypericum Richeii, Dianthus Armeria, Carthusianus, superbus, in great beauty & earlier I have no doubt more. Carlina acaulis & caulescens Carduus do at the foot of the Mt we found Serapis latifolia still in flower which gave us hopes of Orchideæ at the top but we found only some indistinguishable remains enough to shew there were several sorts – Convallaria verticillata Ornithogalum pyrenaicum, I think & have got seeds – Salvia glutinosa of course – Sedum monregalense Campanula linifolia – It was too late in the year to make the tour of the Mt with any success & weather rainy & cold – there Autumn is begun – If I am here next summer I will go for a week to San Marcello where there is a very good inn which we slept at, & make radii for a week The walk from thence to the Mt is very pretty thro woods of Chestnut & beech – it is altogether the easiest Mt I ever saw – Raddi once found there Pedicularis gyroflexa the highest point is Mte Grosso which I did not attain I recommend you when you come to Italy by that road to fix yr quarters at S. Marcello it is so cold no vines or olives will grow even by the river which runs by a beautiful valley half of which I have walked, to Lucca baths – & keep the Teso for the last days walk going up from S. M. & sending your carriage on to wait at Ponte Petri as the stream that flows by Maresca the village under the Mt runs to Pte Petri & so to Bologna. The village of Cavignano between Maresca & S. Marcello is beautifully situated – under the Beech woods which encircle the top of il Teso is a haras <2> of the G Duke <3> most inconveniently situated, & on entering it you see a steep sloping meadow of bogearth [sic] covered with plants – there to my inexpressible delight I found a proventus <4> of my new colchicum if it is one which I depended on finding there.
I went to Wallis <5> yesterday he waits only for the leave to take down the Correggio <6> to begin yours – in the mean time he is doing something for me. His copies of Raphael <7> are decided failures – Even a copyist must confine himself with bounds – I wish you had staid I have got deeper in the picture dealing line than ever that is I have bought nothing but only feel tempted I wish I knew exactly the duty I hope you told Kit <8> of the books he may find here. The artists here work much quicker than they do in England because they have not so much to do at once.
Yr Affte
W T H F S
Petala lineari ovata striata <9>basi colore saturatiore
lineâ croceâ notata
tria breviora fauce luteâ
Scapus 3angularis luteus bi-striatus nudus
Stamina cum antheris lutea conniventia tria breviora
Pistill 3. filiformes longissimi
Bulbus oblongus tunicatus glaber
In montibus altis Rondinaio et Teso dictis mense Augusto ineunte legi C. autumnali in planitie nondum florenti
This is Colchicum montanum in Don’s <10> opinion
Henry Talbot Esq
31 Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. Joseph (Giuseppe) Raddi (1770–1829), Italian botanist.
2. Stud-farm.
3. Leopold II (1797–1870), Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1824 to 1859.
4. Crop.
5. Probably George Augustus Wallis (1770-1847), Scottish born painter resident in Florence who also was an art dealer and served as a representative of art dealers.
6. Antonio Allegri (Correggio) (1494–1534), Italian painter.
7. Raphael (1483–1520).
8. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
9. Petals linearly ovate striated/ colour stronger at base/ distinguished by saffron-coloured lines/ shorter tria, throat yellow/ Scape triangular, two-striped, nude/ Stamens with anthers yellow closing with shorter tria/ Pistils 3, filiform, very long/ Bulb elongated, tunicated, glabrous / In the high mountains called Rondinaio and Teso, at the beginning of August I picked some C. in the forest which had not yet taken on its autumnal colours.
10. Possibly David Don (1800–1841), Scottish botanist.