TALBOT456

London
1 Dec^r

My dear Henry

I am detained for a few days in town for the formality of seeing Lord Granville ¹ so I cannot say when I shall join you - Pray give me a line to say what plants you find at Melbury ² & how they look - Webb ³ is in town very sorry to have missed you - I breakfasted with him today & saw some part of his Museum for which he has a room on purpose - & a very good library He has lately received a hortus siccus from Montpellier ⁴ which would have interested you & which you might have assisted him in naming as he does not know all the plants of that country - He found a very interesting new Scabiosa on M^t Ida which has been figured in Bot. Mag. ⁵ as Scabiosa Webbii it is between S. tomentosa & S. Sp[illegible]iotica - he would have been very glad to see your Alpine Scabiosa & indeed your Herbarium in general He says his Gardener has succeeded very well in raising Styrax officinale Quercus Ægilops & several other uncommon shrubs & trees of the Levant which he sent home -

Pray look at my little Paliurus it ought to be shedding its leaves - Write me a line to say when you go to Moreton ⁶ as it is there I expect to meet you now I have heard the Abbotsbury scheme ⁷ is given up - At Sir T. Neaves⁸ the other day I saw one of the finest cork trees - & Alaternus - in England Webb heard from Tenore ⁹ lately he is in progress with his 3^d vol & in the meantime proposes to bring out 2 vols in 8^vo on the botany of 20 miles round Naples a scheme I highly approve of Pollinis 2^d vol is out.¹⁰ I am to dine with Webb tomorrow at the Linnean Club - he has been in Scotland & found several Lapland plants -

Y^r
W T H F S

What is my great yellow centaurea

H. Talbot Esq^r