Ɛpsilon

WCP3852

Letter (WCP3852.3771)

[1]1

Old Orchard,

Broadstone,

Wimborne.

April 16th. 1909

Lt. Col. Prain2 F. R. S.

Dear Sir

I was going to throw the enclosed MSS. into the W. P. basket when it occurred to me that it might perhaps be worth printing in the "Journal of Botany" at any time when matter appears to be short.

I had intended it for a short Chapter in Spruces3"Notes"4 but decided it was too fragmentary and too exclusively [2] botanical to be included.

The names of the Nat. orders after the name of a genus or species were interpolated by myself, as I thought even botanists might not always remember the names of the rarer S. American genera.

The whole matter, & much more is of course in the "Journals" you have, but this fragment may be of use as a sample.

Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

[3] Thanked, & promised early publication. 17.IV.09. 5

1
Round stamp of "ROYAL GARDENS – KEW 17 APR.1909.”
2
Prain, David (1857-1944). Scottish botanist who worked in India at the Calcutta Botanical Garden. Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1905-1922.
3
Spruce, Richard (1817-1893). British botanist, explorer and collector in the Amazon; lifelong friend of ARW.
4
Wallace, A. R. ed. 1908. Richard Spruce. Notes of a botanist on the Amazon and Andes. London: Macmillan & Co. Two volumes.
5
In Prain’s handwriting. The letter has not been found.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP3852.3771)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Lucas, Paula [2014-03-21] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Please cite as “WCP3852,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3852