4 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION [Chap. VII 



Letter 380 To J. D. Hooker. 



Down, March 21st [1867]. 



Many thanks for your pleasant and very amusing letter. 

 You have been treated shamefully by Etty and me, but now 

 that I know the facts, the sentence seems to me quite clear. 

 Nevertheless, as we have both blundered, it would be well 

 to modify the sentence something as follows : M whilst, on 

 the other hand, the plants which are related to those of 

 distant continents, but have no affinity with those of the 

 mother continent, are often very common." I forget whether 

 you explain this circumstance, but it seems to me very 

 mysterious. 1 . . . Do always remember that nothing in the 

 world gives us so much pleasure as seeing you here whenever 

 you can come. I chuckle over what you say of And. Murray, 

 but I must grapple with his book some day. 



Letter 381 To C. Lyell. 



Down, Oct. 31st [1867]. 



Mr. [J. P. Mansel] Weale sent to me from Natal a small 

 packet of dry locust dung, under | oz., with the statement 

 that it is believed that they introduce new plants into a 

 district. 2 This statement, however, must be very doubtful. 

 From this packet seven plants have germinated, belonging 

 to at least two kinds of grasses. There is no error, for I 

 dissected some of the seeds out of the middle of the pellets. 

 It deserves notice that locusts are sometimes blown far out 

 to sea. I caught one 370 miles from Africa, and I have 

 heard of much greater distances. You might like to hear the 

 following case, as it relates to a migratory bird belonging to 

 the most wandering of all orders — viz. the woodcock. 3 The 

 tarsus was firmly coated with mud, weighing when dry 



1 Sir Joseph Hooker wrote (March 23rd, 1867): "I see you 'smell a 

 rat ' in the matter of insular plants that are related to those of [a] distant 

 continent being common. Yes, my beloved friend, let me make a clean 

 breast of it. I only found it out after the lecture was in print ! . . . I 

 have been waiting ever since to ' think it out,' and write to you about it, 

 coherently. I thought it best to squeeze it in, anyhow or anywhere, rather 

 than leave so curious a fact unnoticed." 



8 See Vol. I., Letter 221. 



3 Origin, Ed. VI., p. 328. 



