WCP4078

Letter (WCP4078.4025)

[1]1

5. Westbourne Grove Terrace W.

Septr. 26th. 1863

My dear Mr Darwin

I enclose you some flowers of a Melastoma2 just received from a friend at Singapore — Unfortunately he gives me very little information about them except that "in every case they were swarming with ants[.]" Perhaps by examining the flowers you can find out something.

My friend Mr. Tristram3 informed me the other day of an interesting [2] fact on acclimatization of plants similar to that of the rhododendrons mentioned by Dr. Hooker.4, 5 I note the particulars on the opposite page.

I have seen quite a number of striped horses in London. At least 4 or 5 Cab horses striped on the legs all more or less clay coloured, & lately a pony, with strong dorsal stripe, two shoulder stripes, & bands on fore legs.

I hope you are now better in health & that we may soon hope to have your volume on "Domestication &c."6

I have the bees comb of oval cells promised from two friends in the [3] East but there seems some difficulty in getting it.7

With best wishes I remain | My dear Mr. Darwin | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

C. Darwin Esq.

"W. E. Surtees Esq. (of Seaton Carew, (Devon) Durham, had a quantity of furze killed by the frost (Xmas 1860) at an estate of his in Devonshire, all except a small patch which he had raised himself from seed from the neighbourhood of Aberdeen[.]"8

Communicated by Mr. Surtees to the Revd. H. B. Tristram, Greatham Vicarage, Durham[.]

1
Page 1 is numbered 146 by the repository. Every second subsequent page has a consecutive handwritten number written in the upper right-hand corner of the page.
2
A genus of tropical flowering plants including Melastoma malabathricum, whose common names include Singapore Rhododendron. Wikipedia. Melastoma malabathricum. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melastoma_malabathricum> [accessed 28 Sep. 2019].
3
Tristram, Henry Baker (1822-1906). British geologist, naturalist and clergyman.
4
Hooker, Joseph Dalton (1817-1911). British botanist and explorer.
5
Specific reference not found. Probably in Hooker, Joseph Dalton, (Hooker, W. J. Ed.) 1849-1851. The Rhododendrons of Sikkim-Himalaya : Being an Account, Botanical and Geographical, of the Rhododendrons Recently Discovered in the Mountains of Eastern Himalaya, from Drawings and Descriptions made on the spot, during a Government Botanical Mission to that Country. Illustrated by Fitch, W. H. London: Reeve, Benham, and Reeve.
6
Darwin, Charles, 1868. Variation: The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication. 2 vols. London: John Murray.
7
The text continues "East but there seems some" on the lower half of p. [[3]], separated from ARW's quote " 'W. E. Surtees... Aberdeen' " and "Communicated... Durham" by a line drawn across the page.
8
The top of page [[3]] is annotated in pencil in Charles Darwin's hand. "Acclimatisation under nature." Reading based on Darwin Correspondence Project, Letter no. 4308, <https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-4308.xml> [accessed 29 Sep. 2019].

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP4078.4025)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Szentgyorgyi, Katherine [2012-06-13] Transcription checked by Lucas, Paula [2019-12-20]

Please cite as “WCP4078,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 11 October 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4078