152 



LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, ix 



dozen, someting vill transpire." At any rate the Chinee tran- 

 spired, and I hope some official will. 



Here beginneth more gentian craze. 



I have not examined Moorcroft. yet, but if the figure in 

 Roxb. is trustworthy it's a primary and no mistake. I can't 

 understand your admitting Amarellae without coronae. The 

 presence of a corona is part of the definition of the amarella 

 group, and an amarella without a corona is a primary ipso facto. 



Taking the facts as I have got them in the rough, and sub- 

 ject to minor verifications, the contrast between the Andean, 

 Himalayan, and Caucasian Gentian Florae is very striking. 



Simplices. Ciliatae. 



Andes 27 o (?) 



Himalayas 1 (Moorcroft.) o 



Caucasus Pyrenees 2 (lutea 2 



(all one) umbellatd) 



I don't think Ciliatae worth anything as a division. I took it 

 as it stood. 



It is clear that migration helps nothing, as between the old- 

 world and S. American Florae. It is the case of the Tapirs 

 (Andean and Sino-Malayan) over again. Relics of a tertiary 

 Flora which once extended from S. America to Eurasia through 

 N. America (by the west, probably). 



I see a book by Engler on the development of Floras since 

 tertiary epoch. Probably the beggar has the idea. — Ever yours, 



T. H. Huxley. 



Godalming, Sept. 25, 1886. 



My dear Foster — We are here till to-morrow on a visit to 

 Leonard, seeing how the young folks keep house. 



I brought the Egyptian report down with me. It is very im- 

 portant, and in itself justifies the expenditure. Any day next 

 (that is to say this) week that you like I can see Col. Turner. 

 If you and Evans can arrange a day I don't think we need mind 

 the rest of the Committee. We must get at least two other bor- 

 ings ten or fifteen miles off, if possible on the same parallel, by 

 hook or by crook. It will tell us more about the Nile valley than 

 has ever been known. That Italian fellow who published sec- 

 tions must have lied considerably. 



Touching gentians, I have not examined your specimen yet, 

 but it certainly did not look like Andrewsii. You talk of having 

 acaulis in your garden. That is one of the species I worked out 



