WCP1786

[1]

Broadstone, Wimborne.

Nov^r. 20th. 1904

W. H. Hudson Esq.

Dear Mr. Hudson¹

A friend of mine who is an amateur gardener, and myself, want to get some of the Bromeliaceae of the South Temperate zone, to grow, as we hear they grow well out of doors in Summer & in a slightly warm greenhouse in winter.

They are however almost unknown in England though one or two amateurs grow them on the continent. They are called "Air plants" and grown by hanging up in room or verandahs in the Argentine [2] and no doubt you know them well. There are a large number of species and some very beautiful. I write to ask if you have still any friends there, & if you know any one living in a district where they abound, & who is fond of botany or of flowers, to whom I could apply to send me some of the best by parcel post, for which we should be glad to pay a moderate price. I have a book which states that Cordova is a very rich district for them. Do you [3] know any botanist there?

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Now for another matter. After I wrote my article on The Arabian Nights & the Birds of Paradise,² in the Independent Review, — in the first part of which I refer to the story of the Viper swallowing its young, and state that a gentleman in the U. States told me he had witnessed & proved the same fact for an American species, I had a letter from a gentleman in the North of England, telling me that he could confirm it personally. As you know the New Forest viper-catcher who I hear declares he has seen it frequently, I shall be glad to [4] know if you have ever witnessed it.

One other matter. In George Borrow's book Wild Wales,³ he twice refers to what he calls "the most wonderful Ghost story in the World"⁴by Lopez de Vega,⁵ and narrates how he told it to a lot of Welsh miners in a village Inn, to their great admiration & delight. But he gives no reference, and I find that L. de Vega's works are enormously voluminous. Have you ever heard of this story? Or do you know any literary Spaniard or Spanish scholar who is likely to know or can find out? I am much interested in it.

If ever you come to Bournemouth again, or to the part of the Forest near Fordingbridge please come and see us here.

yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]