TALBOT1096

Melbury ¹
July 1.

My dear Henry

I sent you a letter a few days ago, which I had kept by me for some time not knowing where to direct it to – & your first letter from Genoa did not give me any information as to your plans – but according to your directions in one I received a few days after, I sent it to the Poste restante Milan ² – & hope you have got it safe by this time. I saw Jane ³ very well in London & gave her the books & remainder of my plants – I have heard from her since at Cheltenham.

My Botany has not ended with my return home – Our Echium vulgare is beyond all doubt a different plant from what we gathered in Italy & I do not find the Authorities insist on the smoothness or hairiness of the stamina – With. ⁴ makes E. violaceum a variety – but I never saw it in England. We have Cucubalus Behen at Abbotsbury ⁵ in the fields – a Silene maritima on the Beach & both in the Garden – where the latter alters its habit considerably – but always preserves some distinguishing characteristics – its leaves never so large as in C. B. & always set with minute setæ on the edge (which is by some described as serrated) – the flowers forming an even cup – [illustration] C. B. & C. Angustifolius of Naples both have a diagonally placed corolla thus [illustration] & the Laciniæ of the petals very narrow & of a distin[ct]⁶ white – C B is ofter dioicous [sic] – & has its flowers in bunches while the maritima (& angustifol. I think) are simply panicled. – In the copse at Abbotsbury I found immediately on my arrival Lathyrus Nissolia & Aphaca really much larger & handsomer than in Italy – & a white vetch which I take to be a white variety of V. Lutea which Sowerby ⁷ I think calls V. alba it agrees with it in leaf. Pisum maritimum is really splendid this year & has at last taken to the garden where we had tried it for years without success. My Primula Palinuri is growing beautifully & I have hopes of the other plants or some weeds that come up with them. I have had the pleasure of finding Saponaria ocymoides & Anagallis cærulea & Saxifraga Aizoon established in the garden here.

I have found several of my Russian & other seeds come up tho some must have been a year & a half at least out of the ground. among [sic] them are some of my chief favorites as Verbascum Phœnicium of which we have many plants – Dianthus squarrosus also abundant – Scabiosa ochroleuca – Statice Tatarica or coriaria very fine – & one plant of the S. Trigona rather a peculiar & rare species & one plant of a very pretty astragalus from Sarepta – Some Campanulas & other nameless plants are coming forward. – I do recognize all of them in their present state A great many too of my first expedition are multiplied here & at Abbotsbury & of course at Penrice ⁸ – among others the Symphytum asp[illegible]num which luxuriates at Abbotsbury in & out of the garden – Salvia betonicæfolia – Nepeta Veronica & a sturdy Siberian Thalictrum – Scabiosa Tatarica 7 feet high – Geranium collinum – & Londini – & Robinia Caragana or attagana.

I hope you are collecting seeds of all the spring flowers – I find the Genoese Anthurium here under the name of A. racemosum. Pray bring seeds of all the Linums – we have L. angustifol wild at Ab. I have seen one O. apifera ⁹ since I returned it strikes me as very like the tenthredinifera. do you know Sedum Anglicum we have it on our walls – there is a great collection here – Sedums do very well at Abbotsbury but not Saxifrages nor Sempervivums – I have received a parcel of seeds from Russia & Siberia which I have just sown here they contain some most interesting names. The dreadful winter has killed the Pittosporums in Wales – but not Medicago Arborea at Abb: & some seedling Pelargoniums & Mesembryanthe are coming up now having been protected by the snow.

Italy
A Mons^r
Monsieur H. Talbot

à la Poste Restante
Varese
Milan