WCP2857

[1]¹

31/10/06,

Dr A. R. Wallace,

Dear Sir,

In reply to your letter I may say that I have no actual knowledge as to number of volumes & forming Spruce's² diary.

Spruce & my mother were children together, & were very friendly when he returned from S. America. When he came to live at Welburn he often came to our house at [2] the neighbouring Village of Balmer. I was interested in B botany at the time & spent much time going about with Spruce, & at his rooms. He suggested that I should go to S. America on a botanical trip, which I did. Before going, Spruce showed me his very extensive ms. photos, &c. & suggested that I should make additional observations in the Andes of Ecuador, & that I should assist him in preparing a work on S. American Andes, &c, on my return. [3] He gave me his [illeg.] aueroir & other instruments that he used so that our joint observations might be readily colourated. On my return, he still suggested my doing the fag part of reducing his notes to order & culling the important parts. Our temperaments however proved to be so diametrically opposed that this idea was not carried out. I never saw the ms. on my return from S. America in 1871. All I did for Spruce was to dissect & draw figs for his work on Hepaticae.

[4] I was in London when Spruce died, but saw him at Coneysthorpe a year or two before his death, when he told me that he had decided to leave everything in the way of ms., &c, in the hands of his executor, Mr Slater,³ of Mallow.

Yours Very truly | Geo. Massee⁴ [signature]