WCP2335

[1]¹

My dear Sir

Yours of April 12th duly to hand yesterday and I shall have great pleasure in sending you all the information respecting Juan Fernandez that I can

I have long thought of communicating a paper to the Lin[nean]. Soc[iety]. on the island and its natural History but for the last year I have been totally unfit for any serious work and even now although much better yet I cannot venture to do as much as I wish. For this reason I have neglected to send you the seeds that I promised, but which I will send next season.

Should my health continue as at present during the next fortnight I will send you by next mail a detailed account of the Flora of the island of which I have a very complete list somewhere, and with regard to several ofj the direct questions in your letter I can at once reply briefly as follows — Gen. Char. of Jus? — Minute diptera especially <Nemocera?>. How many sp[ecies?]. butterfly? One and rare, a spe[cies] of Pyrameis — Carie, Hub. (common in Chile and described in Says[?] work on Vanessa) [2]² moths of any size & species. No. 1 Lucaria[?] spe[cies]. probably identical with a common Chilean spe[cies]. not yet described. No 1. Plusia gammoids ^Blanchard of Gays work. I took 3 in 20 days. Some years ago I examined this spe[cies]. with care and could find no difference between Chilean species and English gammus[?] Bl. says that it is darker in coulour and has the silvered mark wider. It is common in Chile. ^No. 3. Plusia virgula Bl. In Gay. very common in Chile, one specimen from S. Fr. — [1 word illeg.] by [1 word illeg.] to be very near P. divergens of Eur. These two species may have been introduced with Lucerne. (Merdieges[?]) No. 4. A sp[e]c[imen]. of Tpaelotis = (Agrotis — I don’t know if I write this genus correctly, I mean the English genus to which many nocturne are nefarious) which I consider identical with a common Chilean form. I also saw larvae and pupae of 4 or 5 spe[cies]. which I could not breed.

Bees? None. Except a minute spe[cies]. of 1/5 inch long allied to the genus Chilicola Spinola. I have two poor spec[imens] [1 word illegible] on card which I must examine carefully. Only other spe[cies?]. of <Hymen Opl[illeg.]> luteus. Ichneumon cosmopolitan. Diptera of size of house fly or larger — some 20 spe[cies].

Gen. Asp. of Flora?-Next mail. Flowers not generally of fine or varied hue. Unicolor.

Humming birds plenty. Visit the numerous peach trees in spring afterwards a tree with red, inclined to purple, flowers, very common on the island — Citharexylon venustum, ^{(verbenacea)3} Ph. (This small tree or large bush is an enlarged edition of the b. cyanocarpum of Valdivia, Chile) [3] Spiders of fair size common. I found a specimen of the little bird Anaeretes[soc] fernandezianus dead, suspended in a web, 12 ft. from ground between two trees.

Hummingbirds ♂ 90%, ♀ 10%. at least during my two visits, in the months of Septe[mber]. Oct[ober]. Nov[ember]. perhaps the ♀ were on the nests. ♂ very strong flyer and fights much.

pray excuse haste | Yours truly | Edwyn B Reed [signature]

[a seal of the British Museum appears here]³

A. Wallace Esqr⁴

I have left your letter with address at home so have to send this through Mr Sclater