TALBOT234

Melbury ¹
11 Jan^{y 2}

My dear Henry

I have little to tell botanically when I am not at Abb^{y 3} – I am now looking forward to Spring.

Pray urge Charley E. ⁴ to collect in Algeria ⁵ seeds, bulbs, & specimens. The French have not been au niveau de leur réputation ⁶ there botanically speaking.

M^lle Amelina ⁷ (to whom I desire my remembrances & compliments) would be diverted at a seal I found among our old parchments (on a Priest’s Deed too) bearing the quaint but sentimental devise “ Ky ben eyme tart oblye”. ⁸ not a word spelt as it would be now – it is of 13– or 1400–

Your account of last summers tour interested me but grieved me to think of the desecration of Limone by the plough – of civilization or rather Progress. I want so many things from thereabouts, particularly Antirrhinum latifolium Campanula Rainieri – I have seen the Coris with Aphyllanthes & Linum tenuifol & Statice hirsuta on the Corniche in March –

Y^rs aff^ly
W^m

[envelope:]
Henry F. Talbot Esq
Millburn Tower
Edinburgh