WCP3805

Letter (WCP3805.3722)

[1]

9. St. Mark’s Crescent,

Regent’s Park. N.W.1

May 3rd. 1866

Dear Dr. Hooker2

A friend3 just returned from Java4 has sent me some eggs of two species of Leaf insects (Phyllium)5 and of a Phasma6 or Walking stick insect, in the hope that they may be reared and bred in England, as they are in Java. The plant on which they feed is the Guava, (Psidium)7 though as this is I believe a native of America it can not [sic] be their original or only food. My friend says he has also reared them on Eugenia jambos8 which may be their [2] original food plant. Perhaps they would feed on other plants of the Myrtle family. He also mentions the Rambutan.9 As these insects, from their striking resemblance to leaves, are almost as interesting to the Botanist as to the Entomologist, would you like to have the eggs and undertake the rearing of them? Or have you any young plants of the Guava or of the genus Eugenia which you could spare for me to try the experiment on, — though you [3] I am sure would succeed better in one of your hot houses,10 with an equal & moist warmth, keeping them in a gauze-covered case.

I believe the Zoological Soc[iety].11 have a few sent them also, & as I may be asked to advise them, do you think plants of Psidium or Eugenia can be got at Veitch’s12 or any other nurseryman.

I shall be much obliged by an early answer, & remain Dear Dr. Hooker

Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Dr. Hooker

1
ARW’s residence from March 1865-6/20 July 1867 and early July 1868-22 March 1870.
2
Hooker, Joseph Dalton (1817-1911). British botanist and explorer.
3
Not identified.
4
An island in central Indonesia, situated between the islands of Sumatra and Bali.
5
A genus of leaf insects found in the Indian subcontinent through to Southeast Asia and Australasia.
6
A genus of stick insects.
7
Psidium guajava, a species of fruit-bearing plant native to Central and South America, the West Indies, Mexico, and some regions of the southern United States.
8
An obsolete genus name for the rose apple (Syzygium jambos), a fruit-bearing tree of Southeast Asia.
9
Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum) is a fruit-bearing tree of Southeast Asia.
10
At the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.
11
The Zoological Society of London, founded in 1826. Wallace became a fellow of the society in 1862.
12
Veitch Nurseries, in Chelsea and Exeter, were the largest group of family-run plant nurseries in Europe during the nineteenth century. See Veitch, J. R. 1906. Hortus Veitchii: A History of the Rise and Progress of the Nurseries of Messrs James Veitch and Sons. London: James Veitch & Sons (republished in 2011 by Cambridge University Press).

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP3805.3722)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Sloyan, Victoria [2013-04-15] Transcription checked by Barton, Michael [2019-12-20]

Please cite as “WCP3805,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 6 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3805