WCP1406

[1]

Singapore

Jan 3 1911

Dear M^r Wallace

I write to thank you for your kindness in sending me so delightful a New Years present as the World of Life.¹ which arrived by last mail[.] I read it with much pleasure but have by no means yet for it only came a day or two ago, thoroughly digested it.

I am not sure if I sent you my paper on Symbiosis of Ants² <MS excised> plants which I published <MS excised>.

[2] There is no doubt at all that these nuts were meant to be eaten, and the arrangements by which a proportion, (a very fair proportion for dispersal purposes) have modifications either of the nut itself or of its accessories by which borne to a distance by the squirrel as is always the case. The ant escapes its grasp and falls to the ground is very interesting[.] With respect to the chapter <on> cruelty in nature, I am quite <MS excised> that practically no <MS excised> a wild state ever <MS excised> like as much <MS excised> [3] it with a small rifle. The deer was tied up in a stable and the taxidermist shot it through the occiput, three times. The deer did not appear to be disturbed except by the sound of the explosion and after each shot continued to eat its hay. The bullets which were small traversed the brain but the animal did not take any notice except of the sound eventually having run out of cartridges the animal had to be led to the lake at about a quarter of a miles distance and drowned. It walked quite calmly eating as it went. I know of course the <MS excised> not sensitive bu<t> <MS excised> [4] exhausted, seemed to suffer very little pain from his bites, a dog always shows pain by shivering he would shiver a little for about an hour, if as much, and then simply slept away the time till the wounds healed. The greater number of animals in our woods certainly die simply from old age I believe. Not one in a thousand ever suffer from the attacks of another of its own kind or a carnivore[.] Apropos of the loss of hair in Man <d>id you ever get a chance to notice <MS excised> the female Mias sheds all <MS excised> breast and abdomen <MS excised> breeding, It does <MS excised> [5] which I sent last March to investigate in order to find the boundary line between the Malay peninsula flora & that of Siam. I found a plain district all dotted over with limestone islands still containing guano of seabirds, and the flora of this country had upwards of 60 genera of the Tenasserim & Siamese flora absent from the Malayan flora. While most of our typical Malay plants were absent. There is no doubt that the Malay peninsula was at no distant date separated from Tenasserim by a broad band sea dotted with limestone islands, and in fact the Malay peninsula ^proper was an island.

We do not know much of the geology of the peninsula yet — but our Geologist Scrivenor ³ [6] has lately got a few plant remains from the Tertiary coal of the Selangor among which I find a leaflet of the fern Angiopteris evecta. I have examined some fossils of the Borneo coal and there plants were very similar to present day forms. Daudauces etc, I think that the number of species of plants in the peninsula estimated by Gamble⁴. is very much below the real numbers, Very many of our trees do not flower once in 20 years, and many are practically uncollectable then. We have not as yet been over really more than a very small bit of the peninsula & the immense area of mountains in the centre is practically untouched[.] I got 60 undescribed species in 3 weeks in the Telam expedition [7] and I believe this would not be an exceptional take — in other parts of the peninsula especially on the eastern slopes of the main range, where hardly ever has a botanist been, I am collecting additional notes on our flora in the form of a catalogue and this gives me a good idea of the number of plants we know already. but there must be thousands we do not know, and many ^more which have been exterminated by man since he first settled into our country.

I remain | yours sincerely | Henry N Ridley⁵ [signature]