2 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION [CHAP. VII 



Letter 378 grow. Thanks for telling me of having suggested to me the 

 working out of proportions of plants with irregular flowers in 

 islands. I thought it was a deuced deal too good an idea 

 to have arisen spontaneously in my block, though I did not 

 recollect your having done so. No doubt your suggestion 

 was crystallised in some corner of my sensorium. I should 

 like to work out the point. 



Have you Kerguelen Land amongst your volcanic islands ? 

 I have a curious book of a sealer who was wrecked on the 

 island, and who mentions a volcanic mountain and hot springs 

 at the S.W. end ; it is called the Wreck of the Favourite^ 



Letter 3 79 T J' D< Hooker - 



Down, March I7th, 1867. 



It is a long time since I have written, but I cannot boast 

 that I have refrained from charity towards you, but from 

 having lots of work ..... You ask what I have been doing. 

 Nothing but blackening proofs with corrections. I do not 

 believe any man in England naturally writes so vile a style 

 as I do ..... 



In your paper on Insular Floras (p. 9) there is what I 

 must think an error, which I before pointed out to you : viz., 

 you say that the plants which are wholly distinct from those 

 of nearest continent are often very common 2 instead of very 

 rare. Etty, 3 who has read your paper with great interest, was 

 confounded by this sentence. By the way, I have stumbled 



1 Narrative of the Wreck of the "Favourite" on the Island of Desola- 

 tion; detailing the Adventures, Sufferings and Privations of John Munn; 

 an Historical Account of the Island and its Whale and Sea FisJieries. 

 Edited by W. B. Clarke : London, 1850. 



2 Insular Floras, pamphlet reprinted from the Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 p. 9 : " As a general rule the species of the mother continent are propor- 

 tionally the most abundant, and cover the greatest surface of the islands. 

 The peculiar species are rarer, the pecular genera of continental affinity 

 are rarer still ; whilst the plants having no affinity with those of the 

 mother continent are often very common." In a letter of March 2oth, 

 1867, Sir Joseph explains that in the case of the Atlantic islands it is 

 the "peculiar genera of European affinity that are so rare," while 

 Clethra, Dracana and the Laurels, which have no European affinity, are 

 common. 



3 Mr. Darwin's daughter, now Mrs. Litchfield. 



