Letter from John Forbes to Joseph Sabine [secretary of the Horticultural Society of London], Horticultural Society, Regent Street, London

Title

Letter from John Forbes to Joseph Sabine [secretary of the Horticultural Society of London], Horticultural Society, Regent Street, London

Record type

Archive

Original Reference

RHS/Col/3/5/9

Date

4 Mar 1822

Scope & content

Written from Lisbon [Portugal]

An opened seal is attached to the letter

Marked at the top of the page 'No 5'. Annotated at the top of page: 'Joseph Sabine received March 26 1822, and [answered] May 2 1822' and in another hand, in pencil, '[illegible words] Brotero [illegible word] Brotero [illegible word] Forbes' bill £15'

He has not been able to procure many new plants not found in England, but hopes the ones he has found 'will be acceptable to the Society, either as affording something new or enabling you to clear up doubts about some particular families of plants'; he collected all of the iris and rose plants in the Botanical Gardens and most of the bulbous roots; the garden does not have many native bulbs, these being mostly found in the northern provinces of the country; he received a small parcel of seeds from Mr Brotero [Felix de Avelar Brotero, director of the Ajuda Botanical Gardens in Lisbon, Portugal] with promises to send plants from the interior of Portugal to the Society; he gave Brotero a list of 'Portuguese plants that would be acceptable', leaving one with Mr Correa [Abbe Jose Correia da Serra, naturalist and diplomat in Lisbon, Portugal] as well; Correa promised to send plants for the Society and gave Forbes letters to Gomez [Joao Gomes da Silveira Mendonca, military officer and politician in Brazil] and Sacramento [Leandro do Sacramento, Carmelite friar and botanist in Brazil] in Rio [Rio de Janeiro, Brazil]; due to illness, Mr Jeffery [John Jeffery, British consul in Lisbon, Portugal] had been unable to send letters for him for the east coast of Africa or Rio de Janeiro; Mr Chamberlain [Henry Chamberlain, British consul-general in Brazil] is in Lisbon on his way to Rio de Janeiro and has promised Forbes assistance; the ships sailing to the east coast of Africa 'are all from South America and of the worst description'; they will remain in Rio de Janeiro for about 10 days; he has packed the plants from the Botanical Gardens with those from Marshal Beresford's [William Carr Beresford, general in the British Army and marshal in the Portuguese Army] garden and the seeds in one box and vines in another box, leaving them with Jeffery to be forwarded to England by the next ship; he has been unable to find orange, lemon or any fruit tree plants, as they only grow 30-40 miles outside Lisbon, but Jeffery has promised to acquire and send some along with seeds of Cove tronchuda [Brassica oleracea]; Brotero wants camellias and a Paeonea arborea [identification unresolved as at Jun 2018], seeds of 'any showy flowers' and seeds of 'all the pine trees in England'; Brotero mentioned Sabine had written to him in November, promising to send a parcel, but he has not received any: 'he thinks it must mean the year before [as] your letter does not name the year'; he has drawn £15 to purchase spirits of wine and camphor, but spirits are 'so dear' that he thinks he will be able to purchase them cheaper elsewhere, using pale rum instead in the meanwhile; there are no seed shops in Lisbon, 'nor any places [...] that you can procure fruits with names', instead seeds are sold by gardeners in the markets

Extent

2 page letter (1 sheet)

Is part of

RHS archive: plant collector papers

Repository

Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library

Copyright

Royal Horticultural Society

Credit Line

RHS Lindley Collections

Usage terms

Non-commercial use with attribution permitted (CC BY-NC 4.0)