WCP5550

Letter (WCP5550.6308)

[1]1

Doveshill,

Ensbury Park,

Bournemouth

Jan[uary]. 19th 1934,

The Librarian,

Royal Gardens,

Kew.

Dear Sir,

Amongst the M.S.S. of Richard Spruce2 which passed through my father's hands was a small note book containing a "List of Botanical Incursions, June 19, 1841 — April 30, 1863".

This notebook either escaped notice or else was considered of insufficient importance to be preserved with the other M.S.S. at Kew.

I mentioned it to my friend, Professor Poulton3 of Oxford, who passed the information on to the Linnean Society and I learn from the Assistant Secretary that the Society would very much like to have it as they have nothing of Spruce's in [2] their Archives.

I find that all the entries of any scientific importance have been published in Spruce's "Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes", the remainder being merely a list of place-names & dates.

Under the circumstances I have decided to present the note book to the Linnean Society and this is to notify you of its whereabouts in the remote event of any one interested in Spruce's work wishing to refer to it. I shall ask the Linnean Society to allow any one interested to inspect it.

Yours Faithfully, | W. G. Wallace [signature]

References to the book occur in "Notes of a Botanist" in the Biographical Introduction p.XXIV & in Vol II p171. Extracts from it in full are printed in the period July 18577[?] onwards to the end.

At the top of page one of the manuscript, a circular stamp reads "Royal Gardens Kew" in the outer ring, and "20 Jan[uary] 1934" in the inner ring.
Spruce, Richard (1817-1893). English botanist and explorer.
Poulton, Edward Bagnall (1856-1943). English evolutionary biologist and Hope Professor of Zoology from 1893 to 1933.

Please cite as “WCP5550,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP5550