TALBOT2268

Naples
13 Dec 1831

My dear Henry

As you did not mention a word to me in your letter about Carolines ¹ marriage I ought not to give you my congratulations but that I cannot withold them, for further particulars enquire of Horatia ² to whom I enclose an answer. Have you a Vigna ³ full of Cyperus badius ⁴ for the occasion which I could not foresee when I gave you Mauri’s ⁵ Roman proverb. ⁶ I am glad to hear of anything besides cholera & Reform. ⁷ As to the former I hear that at Vienna it was not so terrible nor created so much alarm when it arrived as the expectation of it had done some months before. I think England may be said to have the Cholera figuratively if, as they say, commotion in the interior & feebleness in the exterior are symptoms. I think we have a bad prospect for next year.

I wish you could give one of your weeping Cypresses to Bowood ⁸ & chuse a warm spot for it in the pleasure ground where it will look handsome & have space on the grass – I can send quantities of seed, but as your plants are well grown & fit to transplant, one of them could be planted this spring & would have a considerable start. I have found a very pretty Thuja (articulata) which I will send you it is like a Casuarina. Sedum sexfidum must be what we call Hispanicum – Every distinct Sedum has a tribe of little imitators that trouble one exceedingly I think they will end by bring [sic] on themselves a reduction into mere varieties. They have here one that is neither acu nor Sexangulare, but like them. One quite new S. Magellense with round flat leaves & rostratum unlike any other – It feigns death in summer & on the first rain, stands up on end & becomes green & grows into a little tree, leaves like your sexfidum but stretched out into a long stalk like reflexum – in the hot weather it contracts into rostra, or tubes & lies flat on the ground like dead sticks – I call it redivivum. They have some pretty new evergreens here I recommend you Smilax lanceolata, Celastius cassinoides, Kiggelaria Africana, Cordia myxa, Lyciu[m]⁹ Boehaviæfolium. I am curious to know what yo[ur] unknown Scilla is whether a Muscari or not. Have you among your Linarias the recurva which I found in Puglia – the Amethystina of Portugal, the odorata of Russia, or Pelisseriana of Italy?

I shall continue to send you seeds of Euphorbias & ferns, pray cultivate what you can get from the gardens particularly Lycopodium Helveticum, Pteris longifolia, Cretica &c. They have here a Polypodium Cambricum which I never saw in Wales – Do your sedums grow on walls? If you see any of the London horticulturalists do tell them I have found the real Crocus argenteus or Parkinson’s Cloth of Silver ¹⁰ it is in fact the Crocus Imperati albiflorus & one of the most lovely of the species. native of the mountains of Amalfi & La Cava – Do you know Muscari autumnale it is pale blue like the var of botryoides called Hercules’s club, but with rush like leaves & flowers more distant – I want to know how the paper narcissus flower this year they are in great beauty here. I believe your ground is good for poplars – pray plant some of all the species in good places where they will become handsome trees. I recommend you the weeping elm as a very pretty tree –

Y^r Aff^te
W F S

have you made a rockwork yet?

Crocus odorus is now C. longiflorus

H. F. Talbot Esq^e
31 Sackville Street
Lacock Abbey Chippenham ¹¹
Wilts