265 



He is publishing, on an expensive plan, a Crambe 

 recocta of indigenous and foreign plants, cultivated 

 in his garden. Petagna, Stellati, and Briganti, are 

 the only naturalists I have heard of here : the latter 

 I am assured is a man of considerable talents. No- 

 thing is published on the subject in this country. 



My health, which still continues very uncertain, 

 prevents me from taking the advantage I should 

 have among these fine mountains of Castel a Mare. 

 I have been obliged to give up my favourite pur- 

 suits, as I walk with great difficulty. 



The Ophrys Speculum and Distoma of Bivona 

 are the best things I have got of late. The country 

 about Rome affords a much greater variety of rare 

 productions, and there is now a good Flora pub- 

 lished by Sebastiani and Mauri. The former I am 

 sorry to learn has fallen into an unfortunate state of 

 health, which affects his mind ; and the latter, a 

 young man of great promise, disgusted by want of 

 encouragement, told me he had been obliged to give 

 up his studies, to endeavour to live by teaching 

 Italian. A part of the Farnesina garden has been 

 given for a botanic garden, but not the means of 

 putting it into order. I see by our papers, thai even 

 at Bury St. Edmunds we are further advanced, and 

 that a garden has been made even there. I have 

 applied myself a good deal to the study of insects, 

 and have made a collection of about two thousand. 

 How very little have we advanced in this branch 

 of natural history ! Kirby, Spence, Marsham, 

 and MacLeay, must help us to something better 

 than what we have got yet. I saw with great re- 



