TALBOT759

Petersburg
April 1

My dear Henry

I hope you received safe the note I sent you immediately on my arrival here¹ and that the treasure it contained was not damaged but has turned out as valuable as I am expecting it shall – I cannot procure the Kiel Taschenbuch ² any where here – but I will send you two other Taschenbuchs ere long one is Flora Cryptogamia Germaniæ Erlangensis ³ – the other is Les Mousses des environs de Petersbourg et de Moscou par le docteur Liboschitz ⁴ – but I fear not in time to send with this letter – I got a card for the Imperial Library here a few days after my arrival & went straight and wrote down (as is the custom for books you want) Flora Rossica ⁵ & the next day went for it – & to their eternal shame be it known they had written deest ⁶ for they have it not – I find some of those books are to be had cheap here as they are sold at the prices of the Academy 20 or 30 years ago – but for that very reason they are getting scarce – I have had the pleasure of looking over part of a voluminous H. Siccus from the Moravian settlement of Sarepta in the government of Sarâstof near the Volga⁷ & the steppes there are hundreds of Umbelliferons which are thrown away on me – I send you the seeds of some which I recommend to your protection I am in hopes of more in the Summer – there are in the H.S. Statice Limonium reticulata coriaria & a dozen others with Salicornias or Salsolas innumerable which grow in the salt marshes & lakes of central Asia together with Tamarises & various other english sea plants – Astragali endless – which I know are your favorites – some of these grow in sandy deserts & some in very rich plains but the common character of all that country is to be impregnated strongly with salt – which is necessary for some of those plants I believe but not for all – there are many sorts of Linum – I was told the names are not all perfectly correct – the collector sent some of his garden plants among which were Ipomæ quamoclit and Chelidonium Glaucium There were some very handsome grasses from the richer steppes – I am not yet come to the Orchidæ – there are many British species and almost all are British genera – & would grow perfectly well out of doors with us – I am promised some in the Summer from Persia and the Caucasus which will be great treasures – There is a Flora Caucasica published at Charkow⁸ but very rare here I am told it is well done – but in my ideas Flora Lusitanica is the perfection of Botany–⁹ You would laugh to see the laurels in pots in all the rooms here I find the Flora Siberica ¹⁰ is not colourd & not at all a shewy work like the F. Rossica – I forgot to say there were many Euphorbias some really handsome ones from Sarepta

W. H. F. Talbot Esq^r
31. Sackville Street
London