both correctly referred to their genus; but the former has been 
figured from a stunted specimen. I have got a series of specimens 
for your museum, showing the way in which the Piassaba grows 
on the tree.” 
Upon study, this letter (the original of which is reproduced in 
Fig. 1) reveals in clearer outline the professional relationship 
between Spruce and Wallace and their mutual but competitive 
interests in the Palmae: their meeting in the Amazon, the 
discovery that they had made similar collections in this impor- 
tant family, Spruce’s offer to collaborate on the book and 
Wallace’s subsequent refusal. It appears that Spruce was 
discouraged on learning that Wallace had discovered and 
intended to name and describe the same palms, primarily those 
along the Rio Negro, that he had studied. He writes of 
“relaxing” his study of the palms, in view of the fact that 
Wallace would return to England and publish his results before 
Spruce left South America. Clearly, in this instance, Spruce felt 
botanically somewhat overshadowed by Wallace, whom he 
considered a distinguished zoologist and friend. 
From the letter, it is apparent that Spruce was dissatisfied 
with Wallace’s book. He is specifically critical of the propor- 
tional aspects of the plates (see Fig. 2) and comments that 
Wallace’s descriptions (which Spruce had offered to write) 
“... are worse than nothing, in many cases not mentioning a 
single circumstance that a botanist would most desire to 
know....” 
Wallace’s shortcomings apparently prompted Spruce to pub- 
lish a more botanically oriented work on the palms of the 
Amazon which he entitled Palmae Amazonicae sive Enumeratio 
Palmarum in Itinere suo per Regiones Americae Aequatoriales 
Lectarum (Spruce, 1871). This work, less generally known than 
that of Wallace, contains comprehensive discussions of palm 
genera, Latin descriptions of the species, and comments on 
many of those which he had studied during his prolonged field 
work in South America. 
This previously unpublished document sheds new light on 
Spruce’s seemingly competitive relationship with Wallace in 
regard to the palms. Perhaps Spruce’s judgement of Wallace’s 
work might be thought to be too harsh when one considers the 
265 
