TALBOT8702

Melbury ¹Dorchester
3 May 1863

My dear Henry

I cannot send you as interesting a letter from here as I could from Abb^{y 2} but the beauty of the season & garden improvements we are making supply the place of other things. We receive now & then a box of flowers from Abb. I enclose specimens from one that came last night – with fish – of which some 18 or 20,000 have been taken

The season has been so forward it has put my late planting quite out of course – & many young trees are so forward that they must be reserved for the autumn.

I am very much obliged to Prof^r Balfour ³ for his offer & as soon as I go back to Abb I will mark out some bulbs to send him after flowering. What is his speciality? has he travelled in Europe or beyond? M^cNab ⁴ I know is good at American plants.

The palms Prof^r B. is good enough to offer are not in my way. At least Palmetto I have several of. One of the same country that I desiderate is Ch. ⁵ serrulata – true as gardeners say – it seems scarce. I have all the other extratropical that I know of except Areca sapida of N. Zealand. It is so long since you were at Abb you do not know how very Southern an aspect the Terrace wears now –

Another set of plants I want are Madeira & Canary plants – so many do well with us – the C. ⁶ Vidalii you gave me has done remarkably well, but as a Greenhouse plant. Ardisia excelsa is what I want most.

I wish you could find some of the plants I remember at the Embassy at Constantinople ⁷ Oxalis compressa – Acacia Nilotica – Terebinthus – Trifolium uniflorum

Let me know when you are at Lacock – we stay here till the 20^th then to Abb^y & then I suppose to town.

Your have found some interesting natives at Millburn ⁸ –

Y^r aff^te
W^m

[envelope, "Melbury Dorchester" imprinted on flap:]
H. Fox Talbot Esq^r
Millburn Tower
Edinburgh