Ɛpsilon

WCP3820

Letter (WCP3820.3738)

[1]1

Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter’s Road

Croydon.

Novr. 13th. 1880

Dear Sir Joseph2

Many thanks for your note3 & kind remarks about my book.4 Any notes you can furnish me with will be most acceptable.

I am surprised at what you say about the Bahamas. I took my statement from Grisebach’s5 work (French translation) who distinctly states, that the Flora of the Bahamas is Tropical & West Indian & quite different from that of Florida.

I thought this such a good case & such good authority that I took it for an illustration. I have just [2] come from Birmingham where I met Mr. Mathews6 who gave me a copy of his Essay on the Flora of Algeria.7 Your appendix to the "Travels in Morocco"8 I should be very glad to have a copy of as I read it with the greatest instruction & thought it the most interesting part of that very interesting & delightful book.

Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

1
In Hooker’s handwriting, “Sent copy of book – Marocco”.
2
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.
4
Wallace, A. R. 1880. Island life: or, the phenomena and causes of insular faunas and floras, including a revision and attempted solution of the problem of geological climates. London: Macmillan & Co.
5
Grisebach, August (1814-1879). German botanist.
6
Mathews, William (1828-1901). British mountaineer, botanist, land agent and surveyor, who first proposed the formation of the Alpine Club of London in 1857.
7
Mathews, William 1880. The Flora of Algeria: Considered in Relation to the Physical History of the Mediterranean Region and Supposed Submergence of the Sahara. E. Stanford.
8
Hooker, Joseph Dalton, et al. 1878. Journal of a tour in Marocco and the Great Atlas. London, Macmillan and Co.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP3820.3738)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Rosen, Gabriel [2013-07-16] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-07-16] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Please cite as “WCP3820,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3820