WCP2391

[1]¹

25 WILTON PLACE.

S. W.

Feb[ruar]y 23 / [18]79²

My dear Sir

In your note you put [to] me a question which is not very possible for me[,] who have [sic] never been within the tropics and can have no idea of tropical vegetation but from pictures and descriptions[,] to answer fairly[.] I should rather have expected the answer from yourself who have so much observed the natural history of tropical countries. There is no doubt that there are a large number of tropical Rubiaceae³ Annonaceae⁴ Guttiferae⁵ Loganiaceae⁶ Vaccinieae⁷Ebenaceae⁸ Solanaceae⁹ Loranthaceae¹⁰ and many other tropical families which have succulent or fleshy [2] fruits which are unreally coloured and the colours are described by collectors as red orange yellow purple etc or very frequently white but it is very seldom that any notice is taken of any comparative intensity or brilliancy of colour[,] which of course disappears entirely in the dried specimens as in those preserved in spirit[.] Our coloured fruits that you mention are generally in hedges[,] open woods or scattered plantations and so one would expect the coloured berries in the tropics to prevail chiefly in open or upland districts. I should not expect there to be many in the dense Amazonian forests[,] but so it is in Europe and northern area[s] the Coniferae¹¹ Amentaceae¹² etc which often alone constitute the great forests have no coloured fruits[.]

I for one should never expect the [3]¹³ brilliancy of the plumage of your tropical birds to be due to the colour of the fruits they feed[,] on any more than that of the European kingfishers and flamingos[.]

Yours very truly | George Bentham¹⁴ [signature]

A. R. Wallace Esq[uire]