From Thomas Vernon Wollaston   [16 September 1860]¹

– The whole of last winter was employed in finishing off Madeiran novelties;²

so that the 50.000 Canarians are as yet almost untouched!—³ Yet in spite of this, I have once or twice been foolish enough to picture to myself the unknown treasures of the Cape de Verdes (w^h. I am aching to know something about), & have even contemplated the possibility of making a desperate rush for Fogo,—w^h. I feel convinced is but an outlying detached portion of the great Central African Chain, cut off from the mainland by a series of those horrible convulsions to which you have such a violent objection,—tho‘ heaven only knows why.—⁴ However I believe that my day-dreams (half-hatched) will (& ought to) end in smoke; & that I shall settle down like a Christian to my winter’s work in sober earnest when this Cape de Verdian panic has blown over.—

I have had some curious geographical facts made known within the last few days, touching my Atlantic forms, which have puzzled me beyond measure & await further explanation.—   A large & interesting batch of S. African specimens just brought home f^r. the Cape of Good Hope by my friend Bewicke⁵ contains a heap of my Atlantic genera, of the most peculiar types, w^h. I had found in Madeira & the Canaries!!—such as Tarphius (the most eminently Atlantic form), Europs (an anomalous Euphorbia-feeder), & the nearly-blind Cossyphodes! (these out of a single tube; there is no telling how many more the 22 others will disclose).— — Hence (as far as is known) Tarphius has one representative in Sicily, 18 in Madeira, 7 in the Canaries, & 1 at the Cape!—   (No doubt there would be 20 more at the C. de Verdes, & 5 or 6 in the Azores).—

I was not aware that Hooker had gone to Syria; he will certainly be massacred unless he turns Moslem,—w^h perhaps however he intends to do, by way of another step gained? in the high-road of Development. How they have been pitching into you, to be sure!—   I only wonder you are alive to tell the tale, & admire your pluck in proportion as I detest your Theory.—⁶ I read the Bishop’s notice in the Quarterly⁷ (it was lent me by his great friend Sir Charles Anderson),⁸ & chuckled over it beyond measure,—for I really did not think it ill-natured, though full of fun & caustic allusions which could not do you any harm.

You know I & Sam⁹ agree wonderfully well in most things, so that you will not be surprised that I assented to his reasoning (in which I hold him very high). A naturalist he is not, & does not profess to be; nevertheless it did not strike me that there was anything even in his facts to which