WCP3718

Letter (WCP3718.3625)

[1]1

Old Orchard,

Broadstone,

Wimborne.

Septr 21st. 1908

Dear Mr. Daydon Jackson2

I write at once to let you know that the reference wanted has been found by Mr. A. Gepp3 and Mr. J. Britten,4 at the Brit. Mus.

No wonder you did not find it. It is in an anonymous pamphlet of 7 pages without name of printer or publisher!

It is endorsed with the name of "J. J. Bennett Esq.5 with Mr. Clements R. Markham's6 Comps." It is a [2] rather detailed summary of Spruce's travels and work, no doubt drawn up by Sir C. Markham, for a memorial to the Indian Government in favour of Spruce.7 It ends with a "Note by Mr. Bentham,8 President of the Linnaean Society, on Spruce's Services to Botany" — with a few lines in addition to those I have quoted.

It was evidently privately printed for a special purpose, but it is curious that Mr. Bentham [3] note, at all events, was not published elsewhere.

Apparently there is no copy at Kew, as neither Sir Joseph Hooker9 nor Mr. Hemsley10 know (or remember) anything of it. Still I should think a copy must be there.

I regret that you had so much trouble about it.

Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Date stamped, “22 SEP 1908”.
Jackson, Benjamin Daydon (1846-1927). Pioneering botanist and taxonomist; Secretary of the Linnean Society.
Gepp, Antony (1862-1955). Cryptogam botanist at British Museum (Natural History).
Britten, James (1846-1924). British botanist and Roman Catholic propagandist.
Bennett, John Joseph (1801-1876). British physician and botanist. Younger brother of the zoologist Edward Turner Bennett.
Markham, Clements Robert (1830-1916). British geographer, explorer, and writer. Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society 1863-88.
Spruce, Richard (1817-1893). British botanist, explorer and collector in the Amazon; lifelong friend of ARW.
Bentham, George (1800-1884). British botanist. President of the Linnean Society 1861-74.
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.
Hemsley, William Botting (1843-1924). British botanist; Keeper at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1899-1908.

Please cite as “WCP3718,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3718