Correspondence on Biology, etc. 



they proceeded westward, increasing in species. Xor can I 

 conceive the Western Island, when surrounded by sea, har- 

 bouring a flora like its present one. 



I have been disposed to regard New Caledonia and the 

 New Hebrides as the parent country of many New Zealand 

 and Australian forms of vegetation, but we do not know 

 enough of the vegetation of the former to warrant the con- 

 clusion; and after all it would be but a slight modification 

 of your views. 



1 very much like your whole working of the problem of 

 the isolation and connection of New Zealand and Australia 

 inter se and with the countries north of them, and the whole 

 treatment of that respecting north and south migration over 

 the globe is admirable. . . . — Ever most truly yours, 



J. D. Hooker. 



Sib J. Hooker to A. R. Wallace 



Royal Gardens, Kew. November 10, 1880. 



Dear Mr. Wallace, — I have been waiting to thank you for 

 " Island Life " till I should have read it through as care- 

 fully as I am digesting the chapters I have finished; but I 

 can delay no longer, if only to say that I heartily enjoy it, 

 and believe that you have brushed away more cobwebs that 

 have obscured the subject than any other, besides giving a 

 vast deal that is new, and admirably setting forth what 

 is old, so as to throw new light on the whole subject. It 

 is, in short, a first-rate book. I am making notes for 

 you, but hitherto have seen no defect of importance except 

 in the matter of the Bahamas, whose flora is Floridan, not 

 Cuban, in so far as we know it. . . . — ^Very truly yours, 



Jos. D. Hooker. 



D 33 



