TALBOT8559

Lacock
May 4

My Dear W^m

Silene bipartita is generally considered the same with a common but very pretty species which goes about under many different names – As M^r Berkeley ¹ is a fungologist, he should rather have imported from Malta the celebrated fungus Melitensis.

My gardener has a very nice way of raising ferns from seed. He puts some lumps of peat in a saucer with some water in the bottom of it, and sprinkles fern seed on the peat. This is put in the stove and the young ferns then begin to grow. Thus he has raised the stately Phlebodium glaucum. The easiest to raise is the yellow mealy fern. Our Wisteria is going to be splendid this year, many of its bunches are already open. You gave me Epimedium pinnatum which produced its flowers this spring, it is a very interesting plant.

I cultivate Tacsonia Mollissima for its fruit which hang down like large orange-coloured eggs – It looks well just at present.

Tomorrow I leave for Millburn tower ² Edinburgh

Your aff^te
H. Talbot

The
Earl of Ilchester
Melbury ³
Dorchester