The Wallace-Darwin Correspondence 



my Journal; where I insisted on the former close connection 

 between the two. 



P. 252, and elsewhere : I agree thoroughly with the 

 general principle that a great area with many competing 

 forms is necessary for much and high development; but 

 do you not extend this principle too far — I should say 

 much too far, considering how often several species of the 

 same genus have been developed on very small islands ? 



P. 265 : You say that the Sittidse extend to Madagascar, 

 but there is no number in the tabular heading.^ 



P. 359 : Rhinochetus is entered in the tabular heading 

 under No. 3 of the Neotropical sub-regions.^ 



Reviewers think it necessary to find some fault, and if 

 I were to review you, the sole point which I should blame 

 is your not giving very numerous references. These would 

 save whoever follows you great labour. Occasionally I 

 wished myself to know the authority for certain state- 

 ments, and whether you or somebody else had originated 

 certain subordinate views. Take the case of a man who 

 had collected largely on some island, for instance St. 

 Helena, and who wished to work out the geographical re- 

 lations of his collection ; he would, I think, feel very blank 

 at not finding in your work precise references to all that 

 had been written on St. Helena. I hope you will not think 

 me a confoundedly disagreeable fellow. 



I may mention a capital essay which I received a few 

 months ago from Axel Blytt' on the distribution of the 

 plants of Scandinavia; showing the high probability of 

 there having been secular periods alternately wet and 

 dry ; and of the important part which they have played in 

 distribution. 



1 The number (4) was erroneously omitted. — A. R. W. 

 » An error : should have been the Australian. — A. R. W. 

 » Axel Blytt, "Essay on the Immigration of the Norwegian Flora." Chris- 

 tianla, 1876. 



293 



