The Wallace-Darwin Correspondence 



islands in the absence of mammals and the extreme poverty 

 of birds and insects, and they are within the tropics. Will 

 not that be a hard nut for you when you come to treat in 

 detail on geographical distribution ? 



I enclose Seeman's note, which please return when you 

 have copied the list, if of any use to you. 



Many thanks for your carte, which I think very good. 

 The large one had not arrived when I was in town last 

 week. 



Sir C. LyelPs chapter on Oceanic Islands I think very 

 good. — Believe me, dear Darwin, yours very faithfully, 



Alfred R. Wallace. 



Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 9, 1868. 



My dear Wallace, — You allude in your note to several 

 points which I should much enjoy discussing with you did 

 time and strength permit. I know Dr. Seeman is a good 

 botanist, but I most strongly advise you to show the list 

 to Hooker before you make use of the materials in print. 

 Hooker seems much overworked, and is now gone a tour, 

 but I suppose you will be in town before very long, and 

 could see him. The list is quite unintelligible to me; it 

 is not pretended that the same species exist in the Sand- 

 wich Islands and Arctic regions; and as far as the genera 

 are concerned, I know that in almost every one of 

 them species inhabit such countries as Florida, North 

 Africa, New Holland, etc. Therefore these genera seem 

 to me almost mundane, and their presence in the Sand- 

 wich Islands will not, as I suspect in my ignorance, 

 show any relation to the Arctic regions. The Sandwich 

 Islands, though I have never considered them much, have 

 long been a sore perplexity to me : they are eminently 

 oceanic in position and productions; they have long been 

 separated from each other; and there are only slight signs 



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