WCP3716

[1]¹

Old Orchard,

Broadstone,

Wimborne.

Sept^r. 15th. 1908

Dear D^r. Jackson²

I regret having given you so much trouble. The passagae occurs in Mr. G. Stabler's³ Obituary notice of Spruce,⁴ in the Tr. & Proc. of the Bot. Soc. of Edinburgh for Feb. 1894. p.103. I have been for some time in correspondence with Mr. Stabler (who is now quite blind) and he told me that, not having the Address volumes of the Linn. Soc. Journal &c. he could not give me the ref.

You will see I think by the internal evidence that it must have been [2] written either by Mr. Bentham⁵ or Sir W. Hooker.⁶ but it may have been in some paper or article in Hooker's Journal of Botany⁷ in which so many of Spruce's letters appeared as well as Mr. Bentham's notes on and descriptions of his new plants. It might appropriately have appeared in the last of Mr. Bentham's papers on Spruce's Collections — but Mr. Stabler, thought it was in one of his "Addresses."

As probably, like myself, you do not like being beaten in such a quest, perhaps you will kindly refer to Mr. Bentham's latest papers [3] on Spruce's Collections in the Journal of Botany.

It must have been written after all his chief collections had been received and examined, — & that could not have been earlier than 1861 — or 1862. It is so expressly attributed to Mr. Bentham that I think it must have been by him, rather than by Sir W. Hooker.

Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]