Alfred Russel Wallace 



very small an affair as compared with the vast foundation 

 of fact and experiment on which your father worked. — 

 Believe me yours very faithfully, Alfred R. Wallace. 



To Mrs. Fisher {nee Buckley) 



Frith Hill, Oodalming. February 16, 1888. 



My dear Mrs. Fisher, — I know nothing of the physiology 

 of ferns and mosses, but as a matter of fact I think they 

 will be found to increase and diminish together all over 

 the world. Both like moist, equable climates and shade, 

 and are therefore both so abundant in oceanic islands, and 

 in the high regions of the tropics. 



I am inclined to think that the reason ferns have per- 

 sisted so long in competition with flowering plants is the 

 fact that they thrive best in shade, flowers best in the light. 

 In our woods and ravines the flowers are mostly spring 

 flowers, which die away just as the foliage of the trees is 

 coming out and the shade deepens; while ferns are often 

 dormant at that time, but grow as the shade increases. 



Why tree-ferns should not grow in cold countries I 

 know not, except that it may be the winds are too violent 

 and would tear all the fronds off before the spores were 

 ripe. Everywhere they grow in ravines, or in forests 

 where they are sheltered, even in the tropics. And they 

 are not generally abundant, but grow in particular zones 

 only. In all the Amazon valley I don't remember ever 

 having seen a tree-fern. . . . 



I too am struggling with my '' Popular Sketch of Dar- 

 winism," and am just now doing a chapter on the great 

 " hybridity " question. I really think I shall be able to 

 arrange the whole subject more intelligibly than Darwin 

 did, and simplify it immensely by leaving out the endless 

 discussion of collateral details and difficulties which in the 

 '' Origin of Species " confuse the main issue. . . . 



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