TALBOT8003

Melbury ¹
2 Dec^r

My dear Henry

We shall be very glad to see you & Matilda ² & M^r G. Clarke ³ whenever you like after Xmas – I hope for mild weather as you have not been here so long – you ought to see the changes that time has produced in the place.

I have some nice ferns in a moderate warm house, which suits all sorts from all climates.

We have a Benthamia in fruit here for the first time & from Abb. ⁴ I received a few days ago a full blown Iris alata – alias scorpioides the beautiful sweet Sicilian Iris which will hardly blow or grow away from the sea – I brought it in 1833 if not before from Italy. I never knew it so early before. A Phagianthus from Sir Charles ⁵ a small malvaceous shrub is also in flower.

The American oaks here bore a good many acorns this year – is it not odd some oaks have a fructificatio biennis? ⁶ & one Japanese seems to make it a triennial affair & I suspect some of its Indian congeners do the same – these slightly, approach the Chestnut character, while others seem an enlarged variation of Ilex

Y^r aff^te
W^m

I am settling old Abbotsbury Deeds