Parkstone, Dorset
June 12th. 1899
My dear Clement Reid
I have now finished reading your book1 which is very interesting, but I should have liked another chapter at the end giving "general conclusions" &c. Somehow a book always seems to me deficient if there is not a summing up. Your Chap. IV does this to some extent, and it would have been better placed, after the facts, rather than before them. That is my only criticism. On p.32 you refer to the occupation of new ground by new plants & give a case or two from your own observation. Perhaps you [2] did not remember, or may not have read, the evidence I give of this in my "Island Life",2 in Chap. XXIII in a footnote (p.513 of decap.[?] ed.) I give facts communicated by Mitten,3 H.C. Watson,4 A. Bennett,5 T. Kirk6 &c. I give also a wonderful case in "Darwinism"7 p.373, footnote, from Mr Hanbury8 from China. At p.364 of same work, I have given the weights & shape of a few small seeds, to show that in storms they mught be carried any distance, & I do not think you recognise this possibility sufficiently when you say (p.26) of "small minute seeds" that they may be dispensed by "accidents of [3] all sorts."
With regards to getting European seeds for comparison have you applied to Mr. Thomas Hanbury of La Mortola garden.9 He publishes every year a list of from 1000 to 2000 species of seeds for distribution (his list for 1890 contained 2445 species & varieties!) and I am sure he would be pleased to send you his list & a selection of all the seeds you wanted. He grows all the commonest European weeds!
Also they have a hardy seed list at Kew,10 & between the two you might in a few years get almost all the seeds you want for comparison. Almost any of the European botanic gardens would give you seeds for such a purpose as yours, so that [4] I can hardly understand your difficulty in getting a collection. Can it be that you are afraid of asking?
Believe me | yours very sincerely | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP1473.7620)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
To Clement Reid, Esq.
Parkstone,
Dorset.
June 12th 1899
I have now finished reading your book (On the British Flora.W.G.W.) which is very interesting, but I should have liked another chapter at the end giving "general conclusions" &c. Somehow a book always seems to me deficient if there is not a summing up. Your Chap[ter]. IV. does this to some extent, and it would have been better placed, after the facts, rather than before them. That is my only criticism. On p. 32 you refer to the occupation of the new ground by new plants & give a case or two from your own observation. Perhaps you did not remember, or may not have read, the evidence I give of this in my "Island Life", in Chap[ter]. XXIII in a footnote (p. 513 of cheap ed[ition].) I give facts communicated by Mitten1, W. C. Watson, A. Bennet, T. Kirk &c. I give also a wonderful case in "Darwinism" p. 373, footnote, from Mr. Hanbury2 from China. At p. 384 of same work, I have given the weights & shape of a few small seeds to show that in storms they might be carried any distance, & I do not think you recognise this possibility sufficiently when you say (p. 26) of "minute seeds" that they may be dispersed by "accidents of all sorts". With regards to getting European seeds for comparison have you applied to Mr. Thomas Hanbury of La Mortola garden. He publishes every year a list of from 1000 to 2000 species of seeds for distribution (his list for 1890 contained 2445 species & varieties!) and I am sure he would be pleased to send you his list & a selection of all the seeds you wanted. He grows the commonest European weeds! Also they have a hardy seed list at Kew, & between the two you might in a few years get almost all the seeds you want for comparison.
Almost any of the European botanic gardens would give you seeds for such a purpose as yours, so that I can hardly understand your difficulty in getting a collection. Can it be that you are afraid of asking?
Status: Draft transcription [Transcription (WCP1473.1252)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
To Clement Reid, Esq.
Parkstone,
Dorset.
June 12th 1899
I have now finished reading your book (On the British Flora.W.G.W.) which is very interesting, but I should have liked another chapter at the end giving "general conclusions" &c. Somehow a book always seems to me deficient if there is not a summing up. Your Chap[ter]. IV. does this to some extent, and it would have been better placed, after the facts, rather than before them. That is my only criticism. On p. 32 you refer to the occupation of the new ground by new plants & give a case or two from your own observation. Perhaps you did not remember, or may not have read, the evidence I give of this in my "Island Life", in Chap[ter]. XXIII in a footnote (p. 513 of cheap ed[ition].) I give facts communicated by Mitten1, W. C. Watson, A. Bennet, T. Kirk &c. I give also a wonderful case in "Darwinism" p. 373, footnote, from Mr. Hanbury2 from China. At p. 384 of same work, I have given the weights & shape of a few small seeds to show that in storms they might be carried any distance, & I do not think you recognise this possibility sufficiently when you say (p. 26) of "minute seeds" that they may be dispersed by "accidents of all sorts". With regards to getting European seeds for comparison have you applied to Mr. Thomas Hanbury of La Mortola garden. He publishes every year a list of from 1000 to 2000 species of seeds for distribution (his list for 1890 contained 2445 species & varieties!) and I am sure he would be pleased to send you his list & a selection of all the seeds you wanted. He grows the commonest European weeds! Also they have a hardy seed list at Kew, & between the two you might in a few years get almost all the seeds you want for comparison.
Almost any of the European botanic gardens would give you seeds for such a purpose as yours, so that I can hardly understand your difficulty in getting a collection. Can it be that you are afraid of asking?
Status: Draft transcription [Transcription (WCP1473.4338)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP1473,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP1473