[Two of WHFT's letters to Smith ( and ) were reproduced in Lady Smith's Memoir and Correspondence of the late Sir James Edward Smith, M. D. (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1832), v. 2. However, there was either a typesetting mixup or an editorial decision and the last paragraph of the present letter was printed as a PS to . The transcription below is from the original manuscript letter.]
31 Sackville Street, London 1
27th August 1826
Dear Sir
I have the pleasure to send you by the Norwich Coach a copy of Bertoloni’s Amoenitates Italicæ 2 which the author entrusted to my charge when I saw him at Bologna.
I hope you received a letter or two which I wrote to you from the island of Corfu. I have brought a small collection of plants from thence & from othe other islands, which I have compared with Bertoloni’s Herbarium 3 (the best in Italy) but I still have many doubts which can only be solved by a reference to Sibthorp’s 4 original specimens. Mr Don wishes me to communicate my observations on the Ionian Flora to the Linnean Society. 5 They are not very important, as I spent only one month in the Islands (April) and the vegegation, tho’ highly interesting and beautfiul, was not sufficiently advanced – I think I have several new species and a grat number not in Sibthorp’s Catalogue.
The Umbilliferae 6 of the Ionian Islands are numerous & extraordinary. They seem little known and I cannot refer them even to their genera in some instances. A copy of the Flora Graeca 7 which I met with in the Grand Duke’s Library 8 at Florence on my return, was of great service to me.
I beg to be remembered to Lady Smith 9 & am
Dear Sir Yours most truly
W.H.F. Talbot
Sir J. E. Smith
President of the Linnean Society
&c &c &c
Norwich
Please cite as “TALBOT1470,” in Ɛpsilon: accessed on