WCP2973

[1]

HILDASAY,

THAMES DITTON,

15.11.09

Dear Mr. Wallace,

I do not know De Candolle’s¹ work except by name.

I have looked up Watson’s² note in Phytol. The square mile was "immediately around my own abode" as being the one with which the one with which he was most familiar. He got nearly 400 certainly wild, & "about a score of introduced & [2] unsettled species", raising the total to 410, or more. The area would include a good bit of heather tract, with the usual [illeg.] plants; arable land; pasture land; lanes with thick hedges; wood & copse; the R. Rytho- about 8 ft across, with a fair few [illeg.]. Soil very monotonous; clayey loam, and overlying gravels, to [3] a few sand patches. Land mostly low lying, but with some hills about 100 ft. He estimated 200 per sq. mile might be rather over than under the average for all Britain, that some Scottish woodlands might not show more than 50; but thinks that many square mile sections might be found in England yielding more than 300 & several of [4] them more than 400 species.

This note is in reply to one by Coleman³ estimating that 200 species per sq. mile is a good record.

Yours faithfully, W. Beeby⁴ [signature]