Old Orchard,
Broadstone,
Wimborne.
April 21st. 1912
Lt. Col. D. Prain3
Dear Sir
The information you have been so good as to send me about the flowering of Doryanthes Palmeri after having been 25 years (nearly) at Kew, is rather discouraging for me. I shall therefore try the effect of keeping it without water this summer. As the interior of Queensland is subject to [2] frequent droughts it is quite possible that the plant can stand them without injury & be made to flower by them.
I hardly like to beg any more plants of you, but if you have any surplus stock of Alpine plants, of any kinds, I should be very glad of any species whatever, as I have some suitable rock beds still unstocked, & even the commoner4 [3] will be very acceptable.
Believe me | yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
P.S. I have flowered this year from seed planted six years ago, — Beschorneria Wrightii, (I think) as the flower panicle is fully 8 feet high. I enclose a few flowers showing the change from deep green to yellow & red as they get older.5
A.R.W6
In CH. W’s handwriting, “Not B. Wrightii which has very hairy flowers, but probably B. bracteata Jacobi (Bot. Mag. t. 66.41).
CH.W. 23-IV-12. Writer has not been identified.
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP3865.3784)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP3865,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on