TALBOT6606

Abb ¹ –
Saturday

My dear Henry

I cannot reconcile myself to your flowering Mesemb. Californicum first one of my plants has been out there two years growing fast but never made a bud. So Lady Cawdor² has flowered Phormium tenax & Paulovnia imp– before me.

Nevertheless as you will see by Lindleys ³ & Paxtons ⁴ book I have grown, flowered & fruited a new thing Beschorneria yuccoides to wit.

The thermometer is 86 in the garden & it is quite still weather.

I enclose a leaf of a Piper ⁵ that smells like an entomological museum – it must contain some drug or condiment. Also a pretty new Veronica – & two Dianths viz. Marsicus – Tenore ⁶ – & Monspeliensis – somebody else. Again – Adenocarpus intermedius a very pretty late & long flowering shrub when most of the tribe are over.

As it now appears you are neither in Westmoreland Ireland or Pyrenees cannot you come here.

The terrace is golden with the shrubby Calceolaria & all other colours with Mesembs of sorts.

I am trying to grow tuberous geraniaceæ out of doors, they promise well & some flower – I have lately discovered Linaria Halepensis as a weed which is a favorite of mine. Iris cupiea is flowering well in our marsh which I find an invaluable spot it is alternately pool, torrent, swamp, or dry ground. It suits Lycopodiums, Begonias, Adiantums any flag Iris, Aroideæ, &c Every garden should have its swamp its rock & its wood & water.

I am here for the next ten days

Y^rs aff
W F S

Your Uncle Harry ⁷ sailed hence to Mt Edgcumbe ⁸ early yesterday.

Cyprus nigricans is worth culture. Linum narbonense & monogynum set each other off.

[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot Esq
Athenæum
Pall Mall
London
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts