WCP2039

Letter (WCP2039.1929)

[1]

Nov 10/[18]80

Dear Mr Wallace

I have been wanting to thank you for "Island Life" [illeg.] I should have read it through as carefully as I am [illeg.] then Chapter 7 [3 words illeg.] but can delay no longer, if only to say that I heartily enjoy it & believe that you have brushed away more cobwebs that have obscured the subject than any author, besides giving a vast deal that is new & admirably setting forth [2] what is old so [2 words illeg.] throw[?] new light on the whole subject. It is a short[?] & first rate book.

I am writing notes for you, but [illeg.] have seen no defect of importance except in the matter of the Bahamas, whose Flora is Floridan, not Cuban in so far as we know it.

Have you seen a copy of the Flora[?] of Algeria? which arrived this morning [illeg.] Mr Matthews [illeg.] — if not [2 words illeg.] ready [illeg.] & glance through it & send [3] it to you; it seems very good.

Have you an appending [3 words illeg.] "Travels in [5 words illeg.] Floras, if not I can send you a separate[?] copy.

[valediction illeg.] | Jos.D.Hooker [signature]

Published letter (WCP2039.6396)

[1] [p. 33]

SIR J. HOOKER TO A. R. WALLACE

Royal Gardens, Kew. November 10, 1880.

Dear Mr. Wallace, — I have been waiting to thank you for "Island Life" till I should have read it through as carefully as I am digesting the chapters I have finished; but I can delay no longer, if only to say that I heartily enjoy it, and believe that you have brushed away more cobwebs that have obscured the subject than any other, besides giving a vast deal that is new, and admirably setting forth what is old, so as to throw a new light on the whole subject. It is, in sort, a first-rate book. I am making notes for you, but hitherto have seen no defect of importance except in the matter of the Bahamas, whose flora is Floridan, not Cuban, in so far as we know it.... — Very truly yours

Jos. D. Hooker.1

Hooker, Joseph Dalton (1817 — 1911). British botanist and explorer. Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1865 — 1885. (This endnote is not included in the publication).

Please cite as “WCP2039,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2039