TALBOT3895

Glasgow.
June 21. 1839.

My dear Sir

I am extremely obliged to you for your kindness in sending me the specimens of Photogenic drawings. They are very curious & ingenious. But I what I was most pleased with was the imitation of an etching. Can that be made available for Botanical drawing?¹ Plants should be represented on paper, either by outline or with the shadows of the flowers (which of course express shape) distinctly expressed. marked. Your beautiful Campanula hederacea was very pretty as to general effect:– ² but it did not express the swelling of the flower, nor the calyx, nor the veins of the leaves distinctly. When this can be accomplished as no doubt it will, it will surely become available for the publication of good figures of plants. The subject is exciting a very general interest: – few take more pleasure in it than the Duke of Bedford ³ (to whom I transmitted your specimens) & his personal Physician & my very ingenious friend, D^r Cumming. This latter has put some questions to me which I am not Chemist enough to solve – & I have taken the liberty of referring him, as the source & fountainhead, to you.

Pray do me the favor to reply to his queries & believe me Most faithfully Yours,
W. J. Hooker.

H. F. Talbot Esq^re
44. Queen Anne S^{t 4}
London