TALBOT332

Florence
June 7 [1825] ¹ –

My dear Henry

Now I hear you are at Penrice ² I no longer wonder at your not writing to me I hope you are collecting there some of my Commissions to Jane- ³ they want here to have specimens or seeds of our Rubia, our Silene Anglica – and Sedum Anglicum all which you may find at Penrice – send them me in letters & any others you think worthy

I am going to take a walk with Raddi ⁴ this evening in a wood where we found Ophrys speculum once before which I do not agree with Pollini ⁵ to be a variety of araniferum nor is it as far as my botanical memory goes, the same as one I thought it was at Constantinople which is Tenore's ⁶ ciliata I am sure

I have a great mind to make some new botanical arrangements which would I think surprise you Among Irises I consider I. germanica florentina pallens & pumila as one species, probably more fall in with them – I think the Habenaria here is not our bifolia but propose calling it minor, inodora or meridionalis, the other major odora septentrionalis Polygala flavescens is a variety of major or vulgaris – Tulipa sylvestris should be a distinct genus Arum Italicum & maculatum varieties –

I took a ramble to a wood yesterday with Raddi where we found lots of O. coriophora & Speculum, ⁷ three speculums grew on a wall – also pyramidalis, apifera, & he promises soon some Lilies which I never saw wild. This evening I am to go with him to the Giardino dei Semplici⁸ where is a strange collection of things in great disorder but some fine & rare plants. Among which I discovered a long sought Campanula Stylosa which is very pretty – it bears the same relationship to rotundifol. that Rapunculus does to patula, withall that being very much in the style of marsupiflora which I had never seen before also C. speciosa a very enlarged sort of glomerata with cordiform leaves, & Prismatocarpus perfoliata very pretty

One day in a little woody ravine I found Serapias rubra the most lovely of European orchideæ it is more like the tropical Cymbidia than any others if it had but coloured bracteæ would be perfect – I am now sure that what I took for it at Petersburg was latifolia which sometimes [sic] so red & so different from itself that it might pass for 2 or 3 diff^t Species. We have O. Narbonense ⁹ or pyramidale if they are not the same, out now – I am trying to keep Orchis roots in water – & so transport them to England in wet cotton.

Pray examine Euphorbia Portlandica while you are at Penrice & get seeds of it – I always thought it a miniature of Myrsinites & there is one here which they call by that name but I take it to be Portlandica – & I want to settle this – There are two E. very much alike here & both a little like Tenores ceratocarpa but nobody knows the name of anything for certain. If you go to Abbotsbury ¹⁰ do look & see if ceratocarpa has petala setigera or not, & see that dendroides is put in a good place. There are some of the finest Centaureas here I ever saw –

Yr Aff
W T H F S

Henry Talbot Esq^r