WCP4427

[1]

Broadstone, Wimborne

Sept[embe]^r. 28^th. 1906

My dear Poulton

I send you herewith Mr Thayer’s photo[graph]s, wall-papers, & scrawls about them¹. I also send a few odd coloured plates of beetles &c. & some papers which may possibly come in useful to you. ^{You can keep them.2}

In my last letter from Fred. Birch he tells me that Mr Thayer one day told him, that he did not think he could get a living any way so well as by collecting in the tropics, [2] and that he was willing that part of Mary’s dowry should be devoted to taking them out to some place decided on — he rather favoured the Demerara river which I had suggested as the best available alternative to Iquitos on the Upper Amazon. But they are to be married, & come to England first, & make arrangements, after getting all information possible, & then sail from Liverpool. Mr Thayer has relatives [3] in London with whom Fred. & his wife will I believe stay. I think he is in luck! He is now rather nervous about taking his wife to any unhealthy place, — or too much away from Civilisation. Therefore I suggested the Demerara river, where there are several old settlements & daily steamer from Georgetown. If he settles there, in a good locality for a few years, he ought to make a fair living besides doing good observational work. [4]³ He will have his wife’s help, & be able to devote all his energies to his work.

Yes! This last no. [number] of the T[ransactions of the] E[ntomological] S[ociety] is most interesting. What splendid mimicry are Papilio rex and P[apilio] mimeticus. The series of P[apilio] dardanus bred from a trophonius is also fine, — but they want colour to show them properly.

We have had an unexampled drought here & I have only just been able to keep my newly planted shrubs alive. Tecoma radicans & T[ecoma] grandiflora have flowered. The latter a grand thing. Also Sophora grandiflora.

Yours very truly| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]