426 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION [CHAP. VI 



Down, 8th [July, 1856]. 



Letter 326 I do hope that this note may arrive in time to save you 

 trouble in one respect. I am perfectly ashamed of myself, 

 for I find in introduction to Flora of Fuegia 1 a short dis- 

 cussion on Tristan plants, which though scored [i.e. marked 

 in pencil] I had quite forgotten at the time, and had thought 

 only of looking into introduction to New Zealand Flora. It 

 was very stupid of me. In my sketch I am forced to pick out 

 the most striking cases of species which favour the multiple 

 creation doctrine, without indeed great continental extensions 

 are admitted. Of the many wonderful cases in your books, 

 the one which strikes me most is that list of species, which 

 you made for me, common to New Zealand and America, and 

 confined to southern hemisphere ; and in this list those 

 common to Chile and New Zealand seem to me the most 

 wondrous. I have copied these out and enclosed them. Now 

 I will promise to ask no more questions, if you will tell me 

 a little about these. What I want to know is, whether any 

 or many of them are mountain plants of Chile, so as to bring 

 them in some degree (like the Chonos plants) under the same 

 category with the Fuegian plants ? I see that all the genera 

 (Edwardsia even having Sandwich Island and Indian species) 

 are wide-ranging genera, except Myosurus, which seems extra 

 wonderful. Do any of these genera cling to seaside ? Are 

 the other species of these genera wide rangers ? Do be a 

 good Christian and not hate me. 



I began last night to re-read your Galapagos paper, and 

 to my taste it is quite admirable : I see in it some of the 

 points which I thought best in A. De Candolle ! Such is my 

 memory. 



Lyell will not express any opinion on continental ex- 

 tensions. 2 



1 Flora Antarctica, p. 216. "Though only 1,000 miles distant from 

 the Cape of Good Hope, and 3,000 from the Strait of Magalhaens, the 

 botany of this island [Tristan d'Acunha] is far more intimately allied to 

 that of Fuegia than Africa." Hooker goes on to say that only Phylica 

 and Pelargonium are Cape forms, while seven species, or one-quarter of 

 the flora, " are either natives of Fuegia or typical of South American 

 botany, and the ferns and Lycopodia exhibit a still stronger affinity." 



2 See Letters 47, 48. 



