[1]1
Hotel du Glacier du Rhone
Wednesday Evening.
My dear Annie
I send you now a box of plants I got on both sides of the Furka Pass yesterday & about here today. The Furka Pass on both sides is a perfect flower-garden and the two sides have mostly different species. The violets and anemones were lovely & I have got two species of glorious gentians one I think is bavarica & the other either verna or one very like it. All the flowers in the box are very choice species & have been carefully dug up, & having seen how they grow I have been thinking of a plan of making a little bed for them on top of the new rockery where now there is nothing particular. Will you please plant them out carefully in the zinc tray of peat & sphagnum that stands outside near the little greenhouse door. Just lift up the [2] sphagnum & see if the earth beneath is moist if not give it a soaking. Then put them all in, the short rooted ones in the sphagnum only, the other through into the peat. Then give them a good syringing & put the tray under the shelf outside the greenhouse, & cover with newspaper for a day or two. After that I think they will do, keeping them moist if the weather is dry. Your Pa is getting hosts of curiosities. Today we found 4 or 5 species of willows from ¼ inch to 2 inches high, & other rarities.
Tomorrow we walk up to the Grimsel Hospice sending our luggage by post. Next day to Meiringen for 2 days, then if your Pa does not want to come back to Wengen for 4 or 5 days to the hotel where Violet2 stayed.
We are getting on very well so far. In haste for post and dinner.
Your ever affectionate | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP411.411)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
[1] [p. 115]
TO HIS WIFE
Hôtel du Glacier du Rhône. Wednesday evening, (July, 1895).
My dear Annie,— I send you now a box of plants I got on both sides of the Furka Pass yesterday, and about here to-day. The Furka Pass on both sides is a perfect flower-garden, and the two sides have mostly different species. The violets and anemones were lovely, and I have got two species of glorious gentians... All the flowers in the box are very choice species, and have been carefully dug up, and having seen how they grow, I have been thinking of a plan of making a little bed for them on the top of the new rockery where there is now nothing particular. Will you please plant them out carefully in the zinc tray of peat and sphagnum that stands outside near the little greenhouse door ? Just lift up the sphagnum and see if the earth beneath is moist, if not give it a soaking. Then put them all in, the short-rooted ones in the sphagnum only, the others through into the peat. Then give them a good syringing and put the tray under the shelf outside the greenhouse, and cover with newspaper for at day or two. After that I think they will do, keeping them moist if the weather is dry. I am getting hosts of curiosities. To-day we found four or five species of willows from ¼ in. to 2 in. high, and other rarities.... In haste for post and dinner.— Your ever affectionate | ALFRED R. WALLACE.
Status: Draft transcription [Published letter (WCP411.6477)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP411,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP411