TALBOT629

Dear Sir

Most of the scarce Plants which are said in the Botanists Guide to be natives of the neighborhood of Harrow ¹ rest wholly on the authority of Blackstones Catalogus Plantarum circa Harefield, & of those which you mention Veronica montana (as well as the Cranberry & the white Ajuga) is rather too common to be admitted among the rariores. I do not think that Papaver somniferum has any claim to be reckoned a native of Britain any more than Lepidium sativum, Solanum tuberosum & many such other Garden Plants which are not infrequently met with ⁱⁿ our Fields – About the Dungheaps at Battersea I have seen Cucumes sativus growing luxuriantly without any cultivation, & it may almost as properly be considered a native as Datura Stramonium, Valeriana rubra, Cyclamen europeum, Tulipa sylvestris, Ornithogalum nutans & several others which have been placed in English Botany among our Natives.

It certainly is extraordinary for Triglochin maritinum to grow in a freshwater Pond, & I rely on your accuracy for not having mistaken T. palustre which it greatly resembles, & differs from principally in the Capsule – It is so long since I studied the Mosses that you must always doubt my accuracy, & the Specimens which you have sent are rather too imperfect to rouse my sleeping recollection of them & in particular want the Operculum which in determining Hypni [sic] is often the most important guide. – They are I believe as follows N^o 1 & N^o 2. Hypnum serpens – N^o 3. Hypnum riparium N^o 4. Hypnum striatum. – The work which I have in hand will include all recent shells both British & Foreign, but not any fossil Species. – I shall be much obliged to you for the Patella you mention, & if you can procure it in time Christopher will perhaps have the goodness to bring it with him – I am sorry to find that you are engaged elsewhere, but I still hope you will be able to spend a part of the Holidays at Penrice & at the Willows²

I remain Yours sincerely
L W Dillwyn

Willows
Nov: 28. 1814.

I have kept this Letter in the expectation of procuring a Frank & having succeeded enables me to enclose a few scarce mosses which I happen to have by me.

Swansea December one 1814 Fn W: Hicks Beach ³
W: Henry Talbot Esq^re
Rev^d D^r Butlers ⁴
Harrow
Nov. 28. 1814.