WCP3971

[1]

Old Orchard,

Broadstone,

Dorset.

Feb[ruar]y. 26th. 1913

My dear Miss Eastwood¹

Many thanks for your kind letter, and the enclosed seeds of Epilobium rigidum var[iety]. which I sowed imme[di]ately, & hope to see flower this year. When you are in New Mexico you may meet with the rare Primula Rusbyi and if you get on to the Sierra Nevada with P[rimula]. suffrutescens[.] Either seeds or roots will be acceptable — I had some good large fleshy roots of P[rimula]. Parryi from Mr. Cockerell² which came very well, packed close in slightly moist moss, & I hope will flower this [2] year.

The only [other?] plants I can think of that you might [meet?] with are — Mertensia alpina [,] Polemonium confertum and a Pentstemon [Penstemon] ^which will grew in the rock-crevices on the summit of the Pass near the Hotel & over the Tunnel of the Rail. very [sic] dwarf — sky-blue flower with the buds yellowish, I think[.]

But any dwarf <or?> pretty herbaceous plants will be acceptable, and any bulbs or roots, that are likely to come well by post — will be still more so.

I have had a rush of letters of congratulation this year on my 90.^th birthday [3] and I am now just printing a small new book on The Social Environment and Moral Progress³ — it is very heretical of course. I will send you one when it is out.

Though I am fairly well I am very weak, & can do very little work — I have Eczema bad in my legs, & ought to lie on a couch to keep them up the greater part of the day, but I cannot write so, & have continually to refer to my books &c. However, I still enjoy seeing seeds come up & flowers grow, though [4] I can now rarely get down to my new Rock & Bog garden.

I envy you with your mountain climbing & botanising. My son is better but I regret to say not yet well. My wife I am sorry to say has some kind of weakness in her legs which prevents her from walking even in the garden. Otherwise she is quite well.

Yours very truly | Alfred R.Wallace [signature]

P.S. I find to my sorrow that the Primula Parryi roots are all rotted, being in too wet a place in winter! So if you can get me seeds or roots they will be very acceptable.

A.R.W. [signature]