TALBOT296

Florence ¹
April 26

My dear Henry

I rec^d your letter of the 4. from Paris, & at the same time one of the 10 from Abbotsbury – which makes me expect soon to have an answer to one I wrote on my arrival An outline of my tour is soon given thus – Vienna Leopol, Odessa, Perecop, Akmechet, or White mosque, Bakchy Sarai, or Garden Court, Sevastopol, or Cæsaropolis, Balaclava, Coast, Karasoubazar or Blackwater Market, Caffa, Cimmerian Bos – up the Couban, down the Terek – along the Caspian to Astrakhan up the Volga to Sarepta – Tzaritzin down the Don to Chercask Taganrok, Cherson, & across to Odessa – An Avalanche near Dariel which had just fallen from Mt Kasbek prevented my crossing Caucasus – I had a letter from John ² at Salonica he is was going to make an excursion from Smyrna to Constantinople ³ & then they go to Alexandria he will go up to Cairo, but will return with the ship to Malta. I wish while you are in London you could get M^r F. ⁴ or Sir C. C. ⁵ to introduce you to some Naval men going to the Levant you might make a delightful tour there & with more time than John has you could go deeper into the countries. They are continually going into odd corners one never hears of –

I have seen a good deal of Raddi ⁶ – Some great men here have taken up his cause & are going to enable him to publish parts of his collections – & it may extend to all – of course he is hard at work – any notice you could send him relating to S. American botany or leaf or flower out of a hothouse, would interest him – Pray send me in a letter any little flower you think new to him from any part of the World. I want somebody to botanise in Persia I want to know where European & Mediterranean herbage meet the Indian – I suppose in Khorasan or the M^ts of Candahar or is there an intermediate Flora as in Armenia (tho that can only be in the M^ts) & in China? I went out one day to look for T. Gesneriana ⁷ but found only O Solis ⁸ which is subject to as many varieties in stature as the other is in colour – here M^r Reboul ⁹ wants to make species of them & calls one T. Raddi as a bribe – I have not seen it but I believe it is exactly Tenores ¹⁰ T. præcox – another is called T. Strangulata from its shape in bud – [sketch] another maleolens – another Buonarottiana – this latter is really a distinct plant but not species – it is certainly hybrid between sylvestris & O Solis both equally common here – it has the smell & shape of Sylv- & spots of O Solis – but instead of red is a peculiar Salmon or veal-colour its most distinct mark is a hairy stem which is also in varieties of O Solis –

However I found the interesting enclosed – of which I hope to send you seeds in a month or two – it grew with Pulmonaria off: or angust: ¹¹ (as I could not see the rootleaves) Anemone Apennina Rosa sempervirens – I think it must have been overlooked as a Genista which its long twigs lying in the grass very much resemble. Raddi says it is Santis vulgaris as the blue is not a native or at least uncommon – Santi calls all Cyclamens Europæum – the Autumnal one alone exists here which Raddi calls hederæfol: the name Tenore gives to the Spring one which is in reality peculiar to Naples rather than the other – how can one settle this? when there is one equally [sweet?] with both, as fine a colour as the spring one, & the same [illegible] ¹² flowers in August in the hills about Linz (Danube) is ¹³ Europæum or hederæfol: In our gardens Europæum soidisant ¹⁴ is frequently white & scentless – & flowers at any time. Raddi thinks that in course of time one plant may become another to the great prejudice of its individuality as we see here in Scilla campanulata & the scentless Hyacinth. non scriptus which I am convinced were one & the same in the days of first postdiluvians. There seems to be no true Hyacinth but orientalis – if you exclude non S. or nutans as it sh^d be. Can you in your visits to the gardens pick a flower of the new Fuchsia & send it me for Raddi. Do you know Asperula arvensis. Euphor<bia> duleis – Genista Genuensis – Aristolochia longa –

The inland vallies of the Crimea resemble the views I have of the Saxon Switz: & parts of Bohemia, rocks & trees grotesquely mingled together – The Coast is like the Corniche above Monaco, without its cultivation, but with wood – where the M^ts are close to the sea, its nature surpasses any thing I have seen since, ¹⁵ even Corniche, Riviera, Salerno & Corfu – but where the vallies open, it is inferior – There is nothing like Mentone, there are no Alps behind, but all there is, is as fine as 3 & 4000 f^t (& the sea) can afford – the only M^t of 5000 – is rather too far from the coast. But if you could coast Mingrelia I think you w^d find everything. Dauria is the frontier of Siberia & China Nerchinsk is in it or within a few hundred miles. Tauria is the ill shaped Gov^t of the old Little Tartary including the Crimea I could chalk you out a delightful tour of a year going by Mediterranean & returning by the Euxine Hungary &c – but you sh^d go while Woronzoff ¹⁶ is Gov^r of all that part – His power property & connexions in so many countries could help a traveller over more ground than any other person in Europe –

Y^rs
W T H F S

Henry Talbot Esq
31 Sackville Street
London