1857-1 TREES AND SHRUBS. 447 



compliment : * to be simply mentioned even in such a paper 

 I consider a very great honour. One of your conclusions 

 makes me groan, viz., that the line of connection of the strictly 

 alpine plants is through Greenland. I should extremely like 

 to see your reasons published in detail, for it " riles " me (this 

 is a proper expression, is it not ?) dreadfully. Lyell told me, 

 that Agassiz having a theory about when Saurians were first 

 created, on hearing some careful observations opposed to this, 

 said he did not believe it, " for Nature never lied." I am just 

 in this predicament, and repeat to you that, *' Nature never 

 lies," ergo, theorisers are always right. . . . 



Overworked as you are, I dare say you will say that I am 

 an odious plague ; but here is another suggestion ! I was led 

 by one of my wild speculations to conclude (though it has 

 nothing to do with geographical distribution, yet it has with 

 your statistics) that trees would have a strong tendency to 

 have flowers with dioecious, monoecious or polygamous struct- 

 ure. Seeing that this seemed so in Persoon, I took one little 

 British Flora, and discriminating trees from bushes according 

 to Loudon, I have found that the result was in species, genera 

 and families, as I anticipated. So I sent my notions to Hooker 

 to ask him to tabulate the New Zealand Flora for this end, 

 and he thought my result sufficiently curious, to do so ; and 

 the accordance with Britain is very striking, and the more so, 

 as he made three classes of trees, bushes, and herbaceous 

 plants. (He says further he shall work the Tasmanian Flora 

 on the same principle.) The bushes hold an intermediate 

 position between the other two classes. It seems to me a 

 curious relation in itself, and is very much so, if my theory 

 and explanation are correct. f 



With hearty thanks, your most troublesome friend, 



C. Darwin. 



* " From some investigations of his own, this sagacious naturalist in- 

 clines to think that large genera range over a larger area than the species 

 of small genera do." — Asa Gray, loc, cit. 



f See 'Origin,' Ed. i., p. 100. 



