Add MS 88942/1/219

Five notebooks list botanical specimens Talbot identified during his travels in Britain and on the continent (Add MS 88942/1/219-223). These notebooks are complemented by Herbaria amongst his papers at the British Library.

From an early age, Talbot was keenly interested in plants. As a boy, he concentrated his studies on the British mosses, and by the 1820s he was gathering plant material and meticulous botanical observations during his lengthy expeditions to the continent. He corresponded with some of the highest botanical authorities of the day, including William Jackson Hooker, who would become the first Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, and the celebrated Italian botanist Antonio Bertoloni. In his botanical garden at Lacock, Talbot planted seeds he had collected abroad or received from his correspondents, experimenting with the latest horticultural techniques. By 1829, he was a respected botanist, elected a Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London. Talbot’s first photogenic drawings (made without the use of a camera) were images of botanical specimens, exemplifying the precision with which his innovative process could reproduce intricate natural forms.

This botanical notebook contains details of plants observed, together with a record of their location (in the main, England), including the names of several mosses. Two large volumes amongst Talbot's papers, containing more than 180 cryptogams (moss specimens), testify to his special interest in mosses. The notebook also details of 'Foreign plants' (beginning on f. 17).