WCP3996

[1] [p. 369]

Parkstone, Dorset

15^th February 1891

I have now left Godalming and am settled here, probably for the rest of my life. I came for a milder climate, and it is so, usually, but this winter it has been colder here than in many places further north.

As you know, palaeoliths have been found in the gravel here, but I have as yet found none, the fact being that, though greatly interested in them, I am more so in gardening and plant-hunting, and devote all my leisure time to these pursuits. I do not know whether the fine orchis purpurea is found anywhere in your district. It is abundant in some of the chalky woods of Kent. Should you know where it grows, I should be very glad of a few of the tubers, carefully dug up, packed in moss, and sent per post.

You will not find much in my Amazon and Rio Negro except an ordinary record of travel. My Malay Archipelago is— as it ought to be— a far superior book.