a 857.] LARGE GENERA VARYING. IO7 



P.S. Do you know whether any one has ever published 

 any remarks on the geographical range of varieties of plants 

 an comparison with the species to which they are supposed to 

 belong? I have in vain tried to get some vague idea, and 

 with the exception of a little information on this head given 

 me by Mr. Watson in a paper on Land Shells in U. States, 

 I have quite failed ; but perhaps it would be difficult for you 

 to give me even a brief answer on this head, and if so I am 

 not so unreasonable, / assure you, as to expect it. 



If you are writing to England soon, you could enclose other 

 letters [for] me to forward. 



Please observe, the question is not whether there are more 

 or fewer varieties in larger or smaller genera, but whether 

 there is a stronger or weaker tendency in the minds of 

 .botanists to record such in large or small genera. 



C. Darwin to J. D. Hooker. 



Down, May 6th [1858]. 



... I send by this post my MS. on the "commonness," 

 *" range," and " variation " of species in large and small genera. 

 You have undertaken a horrid job in so very kindly offering 

 to read it, and I thank you warmly. I have just corrected 

 the copy, and am disappointed in finding how tough and 

 obscure it is ; but I cannot make it clearer, and at present I 

 loathe the very sight of it. The style of course requires 

 further correction, and if published I must try, but as yet see 

 not how, to make it clearer. 



If you have much to say and can have patience to consider 

 the whole subject, I would meet you in London on the Phil. Club 

 day, so as to save you the trouble of writing. For Heaven's 

 sake, you stern and awful judge and sceptic, remember that 

 my conclusions may be true, notwithstanding that Botanists 

 may have recorded more varieties in large than in small 



