TALBOT1102

Abbotsbury ¹
Sep^r 3. 1823.

My dear Henry

We have just heard that Jane ² has got a boy that is said to be extremely like her already & all well – I was engaged to let you know this intelligence as early as possible & have deferred answering your last letter in expectation of this opportunity

Your shaggy Scabiosa I cannot guess at – Your grassleaved one, not the graminifolia – seems to answer the description of a Caucasian plant which the Fl. T.C. ³ calls Sc. Caucasica & of which I have seen a poor or as Withering ⁴ would say a starved specimen in a Garden – but have not got it myself – as yours is an Alpine plant they may be the same, or allied. I ought to have Sc. graminifolia, but the seed is one of the few that have not come up. Among my others, I have Cerinthe aspera, Silene canescens, Pancratium maritimum (w^ch I expect will turn out Illyricum) come up in the open ground & air – Veronica Buxbaumii is in flower, & very pretty it has a creeping root, which I do not remember that it had at Naples. Thuya pyramidalis Rhamnus Paliurus – Canna Indica & a Cypress from Constantinople Cassia corymbosa, Melia azedarahtita Mimosa Iulibrissin[?], Ocymum basilicum, Ceratonia siliqua – Glycyrhiza glabra from Sarepta are also up – all these are two years old seeds. I have a prickly pear which has lived out three winters & bids fair to establish itself. Dianthus squarrosus is coming into flower here but not at Melbury. ⁵ Of the plants you mention I know Silene Otites from Sowerby’s ⁶ figure. Epilobium Angustissimum is in the garden & E. Dodonæi, very like it. E. Angustifolium I found lately wild at Evershot. I now want to see E. latifolium – all these I would put aside as Chamænesiums. Prenanthes purpurea I have seen at Penrice, ⁷ brought by M^r Buckland ⁸ from Hungary. Narcissus poeticus I found at Lanslebourg. Is Thlaspi alpestre like Th. saxatile? I am persuaded the Ophrys I found at Fontainebleau is O. Anthropophosa – Sowerby figures a poor specimen & says the French botanists go to Fontainebleau to see it.

I have been mustering all my old plants here & find them all except Glaux maritima which has disappeared. Vicia lutea if I must call it so is very abundant & very pretty – invariably with large (for a vetch) milkwhite blossoms. I found today Scabiosa Arvensis & Centaurea nigra both with white flowers – I am collecting seed of Linum angustifolium which I fear will soon be lost in this neighbourhood, to send abroad, as I find it is often confounded with L. tenuifolium – for namesake only as they are most unlike – I would call L. t. grandiflorum or roseum – or L. a. procumbens or prostratum which in that genus would mark them better than their present names do. We have a tall yellow flax with few short leaves far apart name unknown. I got the other day in a garden at Blandford a strange Campanula with Small leaves heartshaped & crenated – long spike of flowers dark blue almost sessile petals deep cut & linear so as to look like a star rather than a bell – it was called betonicæfolia which it is not. I have a gigantic Thalictrum which I wish you would name – also a Mentha floribus secundis with a pleasant smell slightly citrine. an ugly Anthemis [secudiramea?] – a Chenopodium – & a [illegible deletion] which have flowered already. Several Sedums Salvias & a Rhododendron are appearing – Euphorbias &c – the bulbs remain over to next year – This rainy season has produced such incredible quantities of insects of all sorts, slugs, wasps, &c that the plants have suffered very much. Pray let me know in your next when I may expect to see you & where – for I am ignorant just now whether you are coming home or not & I talk of leaving England in October –

Where are your family to be this winter? if at home I shall certainly profit by it – Do you know Coronopus Ruellii? Tenores ⁹ Cucubalus angustifolius is come up & though I see as yet only the leaves & stalks, I see it is quite a different thing from either Behen or maritima both of which we have wild here – indeed I brought it on purpose to compare, & shall take him seeds back – do you know S. longifolia I have it [text missing] blow it is very triste ¹⁰ as was its companion chloræfolia which is now departed or gone under ground as our gardener calls it & not come up again. You must write soon

Y^r Aff
W T H F S

W. H. F. Talbot Esq^re
Poste Restante
Milan
Varese ¹¹

WTHFS