Ɛpsilon

WCP2800

Letter (WCP2800.2690)

[1]

ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS,

EDINBURGH

REGIUS KEEPER.

Oct. 19 1900.

Dear Sir,

I venture to address you although on but slender grounds of personal acquaintance. My object is this: we have been publishing as a frontispiece in the 'Annals of Botany' yearly the portrait of a botanist along with a short biographical notice of him. This year we intend to bring out one of Richard Spruce1 for which purpose through Mr. Slater2 of [2] Malton we have secured a photograph.

You were I know one of his ultimate friends and of these there are but a few alive who could appreciate his scientific labours & merit. Would you be willing to write for our Annals a short biographical notice of Spruce? Herewith I am sending a copy of a notice of Bentham by Sir J. D. Hooker3 which appeared in the Annals. A shorter one of Spruce would suffice.

I beg you will forgive me [3] for thus troubling you, describe my importunity to the desire to have a notice of Spruce — of whom his own generation hardly seems to have measured the capacity of one who from personal knowledge can give it colour hereafter therefrom —

I am, dear Sir, | [illeg.] | Isaac Bayley Balfour4 [signature]

Alfred Russel Wallace, Esq. LLD. FRS.

Corfe View

Parkstone

Dorset.

P.S. Should you as I trust may be the case be willing to write the notice5,6 we should wish for it by the middle of November.

[4]7

1
Spruce, Richard (1817-1893). British botanist, explorer and collector in the Amazon; lifelong friend of ARW.
2
Slater, Matthew Bartendale (1829-1918). British bryologist and botanist. Founder of the Malton Field Naturalist and Scientific Society (1880).
3
Hooker, Joseph Dalton (1817-1911). British botanist and explorer. Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1865-85. President of the Royal Society 1873-78.
4
Balfour, Isaac Bayley (1853-1922). Scottish botanist. Regius Professor of Botany at the University of Edinburgh. Editor of Annals of Botany.
5
ARW did not write the notice.
6
Balfour, Isaac Bayley. 1900. Richard Spruce. Annals of Botany, vol. 14 (December), pp. xi-xiv.
7
In ARW’s handwriting, “M D Dsc LLD MA FRS Botanist”; “Isaac Bayley Balfour”.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2800.2690)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Hamburger, Esther [2015-03-25] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2015-03-25] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Please cite as “WCP2800,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2800