TALBOT2797

5 feb

Dear Henry

I am happy the orchideæ thrive with you & Euphorbiæ I hope too – My banker is Hoare but if at any time you repent the bargain I am ready to take the copy off your hands M^r Kirkup says it is the finest copy of any picture he has seen in Italy I should like to have a copy by Wallis ¹ of all Correggio’s ² pictures. Your idea of Colchica is correct. Bertoloni ³ to whom y^r letter is sent – considers there are but 2 real species – C. foliosum & C. nudum – & their varieties the similar species or genera are so rare I never could compare them. pray try & get from the Bot garden at Oxford or anywhere, the mesenderiform green Colchicum with long petals folia cum floribus ⁴ Viviani ⁵ has promised me bulbs of C. montanum [illegible] I saw C. alpinum in y^t swiss herbarium under that name. It grows on the tops of the Genoese M^ts & montanum near the base It is a bad time for roots of hardy plants their [permeatatn?] ⁶ has begun & they are pushing dry roots kept in the house are as late here as in England but as I am likely to stay the spring out at least I will eradicate on a great scale – I will send seed too Cyc ⁷ roots dry up & seed grows well & abundantly I had just got a notice from the contessa ⁸ about her pictures & saw her last night at a ball – C^t Ludolf is her incaricato. ⁹ If I had capital I would lay out 5000 £ sterl in pictures & make a perfect historical collection from Cimabue to Mengs ¹⁰ & sell it for double to the National gallery for they buy nothing The outlay would hardly be felt as a good collection can only by picked up by degrees I am making a collection of Giottos &c – I think Caroline ¹¹ is an admirer of Giotto I have got a few sketches very good – of pictures which by the same artists & in the same style would cost hundreds. One can not buy many of these as there are but few – when well known & of famous pictures they are tolerably dear, but others equally good are sometimes found in a corner for nothing –

I am glad you are in town as I can send enclosures without ruining you –

Y^r aff
W F S

The fields are now full of aconites – I recommend you to buy a thousand as also Crocuses Anemones & suchlike as are cheap at country gardens & people y^r woods & pleasure ground also with Anemone apennina & ranunculoides & Pyrolæ & andromedæ in quantity also ornithogalum Kit ¹² is at Naples I have sent him y^r letter – I fancy he will have his yacht round to Leghorn in the Spring in which case I shall ask him to take you a cargo if he is homeward bound – & some for Penrice ¹³

H. Talbot Esq^r
31. Sackville Street
London