WCP4188

[1]

Broadstone, Wimborne

Nov.[embe]^r 23rd. 1904

Dr. K. Jordan

Dear Sir¹

My young friend F.Birch² has now sent home his first collection from Trinidad, to Janson of Gt.Russell St.³, his Agent. It consists mainly of a fine collection of moths, it being wholly a wet-season collection, & therefore bad for all other groups. The moths are all (I believe) set out carefully, but I don't know if Mr. Rothschild⁴ buys moths.

My. Friend Prof. Poulton⁵ tells me that you can give me some information about Paraguay, as a country for [2] a collector. I see in all the Gazeteers[sic] &c. I have ^consulted seen the very luxuriance of animal life is spoken ^of especially in birds & insects. Have you been there? Or have any good collectors been there? I ask because, when F. Birch has spent the coming dry season in Trinidad, I think it would be advisable ^{for him} to go to some less known country than Brit. Guiana⁶, as he at present proposes. The birds there, are not worth collecting, as regards novelty, and there are & have been recently so [3] many amateur collectors that it seems not worth while going there if a better place can be found. Also all British Colonies are dear to live & travel in ^{(as he finds Trinidad to be)} compared with Spanish or Portuguese countries, and the journey by sea to Buenos Ayres for Trinidad, & up the River to Paraguay, would probably not be expensive as he can rough it.

Another point on which I wish for some information. A friend of mine and myself are beginning to grow the sub. tropical & temperate Bromeliaceae⁷, & want to get a few sent from [4] Paraguay or S. Brazil, or the Andes, or Mexico, where they abound. From these countries the species can be grown in an ordinary warmed greenhouse in winter, & out of doors in summer, as has been proved by M. Ed. André, a great amateur, — & in one case, by myself. Do you happen to know any resident botanist or collector in either of those countries who would send some of these plants by parcel-post at a moderate cost? They are not kept by any dealers not being so showy as the tropical forms.

Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]