TALBOT7435

London
9 Aug^t

My dear Henry

I meant to have answered your letter before & now we are on the point of starting not for Pyrenees but for Alps, I must not delay my thanks for your congratulations. ¹ I hope you are better than when you wrote to me.

I was at Abb^{y 2} last week & found I had just missed the Natal lily in flower the Gardener said it it [sic] was very handsome. I find two or three of the Brunsvigias very hardy. B. Josephinæ (what an odd jumble of two rival dynasties! ³) has flowered with me out of doors. Agave Virginica (which is but a make-believe Agave – on a par with Dracæna borealis) is preparing to do so likewise. It is herbaceous, deciduous, not very aloe-like, more like a tuberose or an Asphodel – The Japan Oak Q. glabra is in flower & from its white stamina has a more conspicuous flower than any oak I know. It might pass for a Proteacea. Q. reticulata of Mexico is bearing actual acorns & Pinus tuberculata cones.

You heard I suppose of Harriets ⁴ accident in London she writes a better account of herself from Markeaton. ⁵

I was stupid not to bring home bulbs of the Pyrenean Pinguicula – I shall be too late for it in the Alps – Its companion Saxifraga hirta sows itself on damp mossy walls at Abb – & I fancy I could naturalize the Pinguicula, once placed there in the same way. Pray try some experiments your old walls must be damp enough.

Bagnéres de Bigorre was so hot in June I could only get up the hill over the town – but Flora was not bright – I saw no bulbs anywhere – but the poetic N. ⁶ Is there a Flora des Pyrenées? tell me when I come back where Lilio hyacinth may be found another year – & when.

I am cultivating halfhardy ferns – some live & some die – but they grow magnificently while they last Cyathea dealbata, Balantium Culcita, the Allantodias, Cystomium falcatum & several hardy N. American ferns are well worthy cultivation out of doors – you could grow many if you lighten the soil a little –

Y^r aff
W F S