WCP5513

[1]

The Dell, Grays, Essex.

Nov^r 5th. 1873

My dear Mr. Edwards

Many thanks both to yourself and to your daughter for your kindness in sending me seeds. They are just such as I want and are very acceptable to me. I presume, from your sending me so many of them named, that either Miss Edwards or yourself are fond of Botany or Horticulture. I therefore enclose a few seeds of the Eucalyptus globulus of Tasmania which will I should think grow luxuriantly in your beautiful climate & in a few years form a tall tree. As a young plant it is handsome & the foliage very fragrant. If of any interest [2] to you I could send you many Australian seeds.

Your kindness so far induces me to trespass on you further. I do not care much about seeds of Magnolias as they are of very slow growth & long before they flower; but I would try the Asimina as it is rare here, ^{also the} Wistaria [sic]. That I should like best of all would be seeds of any other of your gay perennials, & any bulbs or tubers, especial[ly] those of Cypripedium or any other Orchids. If these are taken up as soon as the leaves wither, & are packed dry in fine moss or Grass in a small card or wood box they will come in perfect order. By pattern post¹, done up so as to be easily examined 4 oz.[?] comes for 3^d (6 cents). Some time ago I [3] received a live lizard from California by these means. It will be too late for Orchids this year as I believe they flower early, but perhaps next summer you could send me a few.

Your researches on the dimorphic forms of butterflies by breeding them from the egg are very interesting and valuable, — and I hope that besides publishing the results in your monograph you will also make the facts the subject of a separate work or article so as to bring them more prominently before Naturalists in general. Have you ever noticed[?] the curious observations of [4] Mr. T. Wood² published³ in the Trans[actions]. ^or[?] ^Proceedings of the Ent[tomological]. Soc[iety]. I think some years ago as to the change of colour in pupae produced by the changed colour of the surrounding objects? As you breed large numbers of the same species you could easily try the experiment of lining the cages with variously coloured gauges, & noting the different tints of the pupae attached to them or surrounded by them. In the case of our common Pieris and Vanessa the change was most striking, being always to a tint resembling that on which the pupa was suspended or surrounded by.

Believe me | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R.Wallace [signature]

W[illiam]. H[enry]. Edwards Esq.