WCP4427

[1]

Broadstone, Wimborne

Sept. 28th. 1906

My dear Poulton¹

I send you herewith Mr Thayer’s² photos, wall-papers, & scrawls about them. 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.3}

In my last letter from Fred. Birch⁴ 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] He will have his wife’s help, & be able to devote all his energies to his work.

Yes! This last no. of the T. E. S. is most interesting. What splendid mimicry are Papilio rex and P. mimeticus. The series of P. 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. grandiflora have flowered. The latter a grand thing. Also Sophora grandiflora.

Yours very truly| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]