GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION [CHAP. VI 



Letter 348 To J. D. Hooker. 



Down, [Dec.] 26th, [1859]. 



I have just read with intense interest as far as p. xxvi, 1 i.e., 

 to where you treat of the Australian Flora itself; and the latter 

 part I remember thinking most of in the proof-sheets. Either 

 you have altered a good deal, or I did not see all or was 

 purblind, for I have been much more interested with all the 

 first part than I was before, not that I did not like it at first. 

 All seems to me very clearly written, and I have been baulked 

 at only one sentence. I think, on the whole, I like the geo- 

 logical, or rather palaeontological, discussion best : it seems 

 to me excellent, and admirably cautious. I agree with all 

 that you say as far as my want of special knowledge allows 

 me to judge. 



I have no criticisms of any importance, but I should have 

 liked more facts in one or two places, which I shall not ask 

 about. I rather demur to the fairness of your comparison of 

 rising and sinking areas, 2 as in the Indian Ocean you compare 

 volcanic land with exclusively coral islands, and these latter 

 are very small in area and have very peculiar soil, and during 

 their formation are likely to have been utterly submerged, 

 perhaps many times, and restocked with existing plants. 

 In the Pacific, ignorance of Marianne and Caroline and 

 other chief islands almost prevent comparison ; 3 and is it 

 right to include American islands like Juan Fernandez and 

 Galapagos ? In such lofty and probably ancient islands as 

 Sandwich and Tahiti it cannot make much difference in the 

 flora whether they have sunk or risen a few thousand feet of 

 late ages. 



I wish you could \vork in your notion of certain parts of 

 the Tropics having kept hot, whilst other parts were cooled ; 

 I tried this scheme in my mind, and it seemed to fail. On 

 the whole, I like very much all that I have read of your 

 Introduction, and I cannot doubt that it will have great weight 



1 For Darwin's impression of the Introductory Essay to the Tasma- 

 nian Flora as a whole, see Life and Letters, II., p. 257. 



2 Hooker, op. tit., p. xv, 24. Hooker's view was that sinking islands 

 " contain comparatively fewer species and fewer peculiar generic types 

 than those which are rising." In Darwin's copy of the Essay is written 

 on the margin of p. xvi : " I doubt whole case." 



3 Gambier Island would be an interesting case. [Note in original.] 



