TALBOT1094

[fragment]

I am grieved however to hear that the place which most excited my curiosity is without the sphere of their labours – the pratum amœnissimum ad fluvium Volkhoff ¹ – Sobolevskys ² never failing repertorium of strange & unheard of plants – I expect a great deal from this association from what I know of the principal supporters of it. Pray mention it to any Ortolans ³ you see in Italy who may be likely to contribute for they say they are rather behind hand in Southern correspondence The Neapolitan seeds I sent to the Crimea having arrived in Petersburg two months ago have a better chance of flourishing on the Black Sea than those I am taking sero sed serio ⁴ to England – they may be planted & up perhaps by this time write to me in London & let me know where you are to be found –

Y^r Aff
W T H F S

What is a Veronica with white sessile flowers veined with blue? on Subappenine hills in Piedmont? The thing like a Hemerocallis ⁵ on y^e M^t Cenis must be Veratrum nigrum in its minorityThe thermometer is 11º½ in a close room nearly what it was on M^t Cenis. Prescott’s ⁶ last discoveries at Petersb^g are O. notulata which may truly be called vagans, Ophrys monophyllos – Carex B.baumii ⁷ – [Scripus cærpitonas?] Drosera longifolia – Ajuga reptans & some [illegible] Schæni &c
Look out in Switzerland or Germany for the 2 first vols of Flora Taurico Caucasica ⁸ I can give you a spare copy of the supplementum

[address panel:]
Italy
W. H. F. Talbot Esq^r
Poste restante
Milan