WCP3816

Letter (WCP3816.3734)

[1]1

Pen-y-Bryn2, St. Peter’s Road, Croydon.

July 19th. 1880

My dear Sir Joseph Hooker3

I am promised next weeks the proofs of the two Chapters of my new book— "Island Life4"— which discuss the origin of the New Zealand Flora, and of the Arctic Elements in the Southern Floras generally. These chapters gave me some trouble and much pleasure in writing, but as they are entirely written on second-hand information— in great part from your works— there are sure to be many misconceptions [2] and errors of detail, which, even if they did not really affect my generally conclusions would certainly damage them in the opinion of botanists and even of science generally.

Knowing how much you must be bothered with official business I hardly like to ask you to read these chapters and point out the unavoidable errors, but perhaps you will be able to refer me to some botanist who has more leisure & the necessary acquaintance with the floras of New Zealand and [3] Australia, and who would, on your recommendation, oblige me by reading my proofs carefully.

If I did not really think that I had arrived at a solution which is a real advance on any thing yet published I should not venture to trouble you in the matter.

Believe me | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Sir Joseph Hooker C.B., F.R.S. &c. &c.

1
The words ‘send proofs JH[?] is written diagonally in the upper left-hand corner of the first page, in a script and colour similar to that usual for ARW. The initials "JH" are difficult to decipher, but have been inferred from the fact that later in the letter ARW asks Joseph Hooker ("JH") to read the proofs for his new book.
2
ARW referred to the house he rented between 1880 and May 1881 as "Pen-y-Bryn". The house would later be numbered 44.
3
Great 19th century British botanist and explorer Joseph Dalton Hooker OM, GCSI, KCB, FRS (1817 — 1911). Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and one of Charles Darwin’s closest friends. Hooker, along with Charles Lyell, played a vital role in the relatively peaceful co-publication of Darwin and Wallace’s papers on the theory of evolution by natural selection in 1858.
4
ARW refers to his Island Life: or, the phenomena and causes of insular faunas and floras, including a revision and attempted solution of the problem of geological climates. Published in 1880 and dedicated to Hooker, Island life was a sequel to ARW’s 1876 text The Geographic Distribution of Animals. When published, Island Life did indeed contain several chapters on the flora of New Zealand and other locales.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP3816.3734)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Clerx, William [2012-08-17] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-01-15]

Please cite as “WCP3816,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3816