WCP2973

[1]¹

HILDASAY

THAMES DITTON

15.11.09

Dear Mr. Wallace,

I do not know De Candollis work except by name.

I have looked up Watson’s [note?] in Phytol[ogist]. 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 the other [1 word illeg.] with the usual [1 word illeg.]; arable land; [pastime?] land; lanes with which hedges; wood & [1 word illeg.]; the R. [1 word illeg.] about 8ft [1 word illeg.], with a fair few [1 word illeg.]. Soil very monotonous; clayely loam and overlying gravels, [1 word illeg and crossed out] [3] a few sand patches. Land [1 word illeg.] [lowlying?], but with some hills about 100ft. He estimated 200 per sq. [1 word illeg.] might be rather over than under the average for all Britain, that some Scottish woodlands might [1 word illeg.] more than 50; but thinks that many square mile [1 word illeg.] might be found in England yielding more than 300 & [1 word illeg.] of [4] them more than 400 species.

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

Yours faithfully,

[signature] W. Beeby²