TALBOT7314

Melbury ¹Dorchester
28 Oct^r /56

My dear Henry

Your uncle Harry wants to know if the title page to the Photographic Book of the Crystal Palace is ready as he is going to bind the copy you gave him with your letter in the first leaf²

I enclose you seed of a pretty papaveraceous plant Emily ³ sent from America it seems quite hardy.

Your Sax. ciliata is my Nepalensis, my ciliata makes a very pretty pot plant in winter tho’ it is quite tardy

What a fearful earthquake there seems to have been in Egypt – I hope the Pyramids have stood the shock.

We have a rhododendron in flower already here – the early pink with rusty leaf a hybrid of Caucasicum – In the stove is Ipomœa bona nox a very laudable plant – & Chirita Moonii why not lunaris or lunatica ⁴

I gathered some seeds of your Irish Yew & they have stuck the paper together so well I am sure they would make a useful gum.

Some of Emily’s Silurian ⁵ fossils from America are of the greatest beauty & delicate preservation – we have been looking at some thro’ a fine microscope & also at some minute shells taken out of Guano.

Y^r
W F S

Lindley ⁶ says Philippodendron has a flower like Passerina or Laurelia