WCP2486

Letter (WCP2486.2376)

[1]1,2

THE CAMP.

NEAR SUNNINGDALE.

[undated: c.1909]

TELEGRAMS,

WINDLESHAM.

My dear Wallace

In the accompanying sketch of the "Flora of British India"3 I have given (p. 14) about 4000 species of Flowering plants & 250 of Ferns as approximate estimates for Sikkim: but I have no materials[?] for estimating the numbers of Mosses, Hepatic[a]e, Lichens, Fungi & Algae (Diatoms & Desmidia) which together must amount to many multiples of the Flowering plants of Sikkim, in which country I collected 250 Musci & 100 Hepatica[e], besides a large number on the Nepal frontier which no doubt inhabit Sikkim also.

I am not aware of any subsequent collections of these Orders having been made; nor of any additions of note to the 4000 Flowering plants.

In Kumaun, a section of the Himalaya 500 miles West of Sikkim & of much greater area, only 2000 species of Flowering plants & 185 Ferns are recorded.

If I can give you any further botanical information please let me know. I shall be much interested in the further development of 'The World of Life',4 but I find my brains are solidifying & I am overwhelmed by the discoveries in Science. "Nature"5 makes me giddy.

Ever sincerely Y[ou]r | Jos. D Hooker.6,7 [signature]

1
Annotated in pencil in an unknown hand in the top right corner "167".
2
Annotated in ink in ARW's hand in the top left corner "Answd."
3
Hooker, Joseph Dalton. (1906) A Sketch of the Flora of British India. Clarendon Press. Oxford.
4
This may refer to the lecture given by ARW at the Royal Institution in January 1909; the subsequent journal article, Wallace, A. R. 1909, The world of life: as visualised and interpreted by darwinism. Fortnightly Review (n.s.) 85 (507): 411-434; or the book, Wallace, Alfred Russel. (1910). The world of life: a manifestation of creative power, directive mind and ultimate purpose. Chapman & Hall. London. See WCP1563 to E. Macdonald and WCP4444 to E. B. Poulton.
5
Nature is a British interdisciplinary scientific journal, first published in 1869.
6
Hooker, Joseph Dalton (1817 — 1911) British botanist and explorer. Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1865 -1885, in succession to his father, William Jackson Hooker.
7
There is a British Museum stamp (the image in red ink of a crown between the words "British Museum") to the right of the signature.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2486.2376)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Lucas, Paula [2018-08-15]

Please cite as “WCP2486,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 30 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2486