Ɛpsilon

WCP2003

Letter (WCP2003.1893)

[1]1

30, KENSINGTON SQUARE, W.

(1903)2

Dear Mr Wallace

The enclosed letters3 give all the information I can get about Island Life.4 I have copied out the references and I shall be glad to look them up & give you an idea whether they are worth your reading. But perhaps you [2] will prefer to send for them "right away" I have added a note or two to Engler's5 letter as I had been looking into his "Versuch &c".6

Yours vy truly | Francis Darwin7 [signature]

1
In ARW’s handwriting, “Answd”.
2
Later annotation in pencil which is wrong as the enclosed letters were dated ‘1905’.
3
The enclosure letters are WCP2003.5071 and WCP2003.5072.
4
Wallace, A. R. 1895. Island life: or, the phenomena and causes of insular faunas and floras, including a revision and attempted solution of the problem of geological climates. Second and revised edition. London and New York: Macmillan and Co.
5
Engler, Heinrich Gustav Adolf (1844-1930). Director of the Botanic Gardens.
6
Engler, Adolf. 1882. Versuch einer Entwicklungsgeschichte der Pflanzenwelt, insbesondere der Florengebiete seit der Tertiärperiode: Die extratropischen Gebiete der nördlichen Hemisphäre. W. Engelmann.
7
. Darwin, Francis ("Frank") (1848-1925). British botanist; 3rd son of Charles Robert and Emma Darwin.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2003.1893)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Mcauley, Fiona Marguerite [2014-08-04] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2014-08-04] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2025-03-03]

Enclosure (WCP2003.5071)

[1]1

Dahlem Steglitz

bei Berlin

8. Febr. 1905

Dear Sir and Colleague

The migration of northern forms to the Southern hemisphere has been already treated by Sir Joseph Hooker2 in his Introductory Essay to the Flora of Tasmania3 and I have bared my discussion in my Versuch einer Entwicklungsgeschichte der Pflanzenwelt II (Leipzing 1882)4 x p 93ff, * on special studies in the Herbariums

* also 256-265

no ref to Island Life5

x p. 93 refers to Hooker6

ii p 155 on Ch viii of Island Life, ARW's support of Croll.7

[2]

Wallace "Island Life"8 is very often quoted for different questions in Iherings9 paper "Das [illeg.] tropische Florengeschichte in Engler: Botan. Tahitischer Vol XVIII Berblatt No 42 (1893).

In general the german phytogeographers have neved never doubted, that boreal forms have gone to the Southern hemisphere.

A general citation of Wallace, Island Life is to be found in Drude, Handbuch der Pflanzengeographie, Stuttgart 1890 p. 127, but there is not any special discussion of the question.

To morrow I read a paper in our Academy on the relations between tropical Africa and America and I think that I can send you the paper in 10 days. I am, with great respect | Yours faithfully | A. Engler.10 [signature]

[3]

About German Ref. to Island Life — & N. to S. plant-dispersal11

1
This letter is one of two enclosed in a letter from FD to ARW.
2
Hooker, Joseph Dalton (1817-1911). British botanist and explorer. Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1865-85. President of the Royal Society 1873-78.
3
Hooker, Joseph Dalton. 1859. On the flora of Australia : its origin, affinities, and distribution : being an introductory essay to the flora of Tasmania. London: Lovell Reeve.
4
Engler, Adolf. 1882. Versuch einer Entwicklungsgeschichte der Pflanzenwelt, insbesondere der Florengebiete seit der Tertiärperiode: Die extratropischen Gebiete der nördlichen Hemisphäre. W. Engelmann.
5
In FD’s handwriting.
6
In FD’s handwriting.
7
In FD’s handwriting.
8
Wallace, A. R. 1895. Island life: or, the phenomena and causes of insular faunas and floras, including a revision and attempted solution of the problem of geological climates. Second and revised edition. London and New York: Macmillan and Co.
9
Ihering, Hermann Friedrich Albert von (1850-1930). German-Brazilian zoologist.
10
Engler, Heinrich Gustav Adolf (1844-1930). Director of the Botanic Gardens.
11
In ARW’s handwriting.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Enclosure (WCP2003.5071)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Congerton, John [2019-12-17]

Enclosure (WCP2003.5072)

[1]1,2

HANOVER HOUSE,

THE GREEN,

KEW.

9. 2.05

Dear Professor Darwin,3

Many thanks for your kind note. I shall be very much pleased to see you here at Kew. I hope you will come soon. Wallace's Island Life4 was noticed extensively in Just's Bot. Jahres Bericht, 1880, II, p.355. Almost a page is devoted to his views on distribution given in Ch. XXIII; but they are [2] merely stated, not criticised. Another, but very short and general notice, may be found in O. Drude's "Bericht über die Fortschritte i.d. Geographie der Pflanzen (1880-81)," p.134, published in Brehm's Geographisches Jahrbuch for 1882(?). That is all I recollect for the moment.

Yours very truly | Otto Stapf5 [signature]

1
In ARW’s handwriting, "Answd".
2
This letter is one of two enclosed in a letter from FD to ARW.
3
Darwin, Francis ("Frank") (1848-1925). British botanist; 3rd son of Charles Robert and Emma Darwin.
4
Wallace, A. R. 1895. Island life: or, the phenomena and causes of insular faunas and floras, including a revision and attempted solution of the problem of geological climates. Second and revised edition. London and New York: Macmillan and Co.
5
Stapf, Otto (1857-1933). Austrian botanist and taxonomist.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Enclosure (WCP2003.5072)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Congerton, John [2019-12-17]

Please cite as “WCP2003,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2003