The Wallace-Darwin Correspondence 



on New Zealand. Sir Joseph Hooker thinks my theory of* 

 the Australian and New Zealand floras a decided advance 

 on anything that has been done before. 



In connection with this, the chapter on the Azores should 

 be read. 



Chap. XVI. on the British Fauna may also interest 

 you. 



I mention these points merely that you may not trouble 

 yourself to read the whole book, unless you like. 



Hoping that you are well, believe me yours very faith- 

 ^^^^Jy Alfred E. Wallace. 



Down, Beckenham, Kent. November 3, 1880. 



My dear Wallace, — I have now read your book,* and it 

 has interested me deeply. It is quite excellent, and seems 

 to me the best book which you have ever published; but 

 this may be merely because I have read it last. As I went 

 on, I made a few notes,* chiefly when I differed strongly 

 from you; but God knows whether they are worth your 

 reading. You will be disappointed with many of them; 



1 " Island Life." 



« In •* My Life " (ii. 12-13) Wallace writes : " With this came seven 

 foolscap pages of notes, many giving facts from his extensive reading which 

 I had not seen. There were also a good many doubts and suggestions on the 

 very difflcult questions in the discussion of the causes of the glacial epochs. 

 Chapter XXIII., discussing the Arctic element in South Temperate floras, was 

 the part he most objected to, saying, ' This is rather too speculative for my old 

 noddle. I must think that you overrate the importance of new surfaces on 

 mountains and dispersal from mountain to mountain. I still believe in alpine 

 plants having lived on the lowlands and in the southern tropical regions having 

 been cooled during glacial periods, and thus only can I understand character 

 of floras on the isolated African mountains. It appears to me that you are not 

 justified in arguing from dispersal to oceanic islands to mountains. Not only 

 in latter cases currents of sea are absent, but what is there to make birds fly 

 direct from one alpine summit to another ? There is left only storms of wind, 

 and if it is probable or possible that seeds may thus be carried for great distances, 

 I do not believe that there is at present any evidence of their being thus carried 

 more than a few miles.' This is the most connected piece of criticism in the 

 notes, and I therefore give it verbatim." 



307 



