WCP2416

[1]

ROYAL GARDENS KEW

DIRECTOR

Kew,. Oct. 29.89

Dear M^r Wallace,

I did not answer your letter¹ of Oct. 8, But I did better and gave orders that your wishes were to be complied with. I am glad to hear that they treated you well, that the plants arrived in good order & that you are pleased with them. It w^d be bad if one could not do something for one who has [2] done so much for science. I am afraid I turn a deaf ear to a good many people who are unfortunate usually as in the probation to their merit.

To tell you the truth I was rather cut up about my controversy with Romanes.² I spent a good deal of time with over his theory and hoped I had honestly stated the pith of it. I did not like therefore being accused of misrepresentation [3] and I am afraid hit out pretty bad in consequence. I will never engage in a discussion with Romanes again. He does not, I am persuaded, grasp his own views, much less those of other people. He is elusive as an eel. I see at Newcastle he talked glibly about the insular inability of generic characters, apparently forget [illeg.] that a year ago he answered asserted the exact opposite. I read with great satisfaction the passages in your book³ in which I think [4] you formally and finally demolished him.

I confess I am unable to accept your views about plant distribution. But I am always glad when a theory one has gone to sleep upon is attacked. This was why I was interested in Romanes. But I am bound to say that you do not carry conviction to my mind. Especially I can't follow you about the Alpine flora. According to my experience the plants descend on the moraines from their former zones. I have never seen any evidence that they go up[.]

Yours sincerely | W. T. Thiselton Dyer⁴ [signature]