WCP5624

[1] [p. 46]

To Prof. Poulton

Hamilton House, The Croft, Hastings

February 19, 1889

Dear Mr. Poulton,—

Do you happen to have, or can you easily refer to, Grant Allen's small books of collected papers under such titles as "Vignettes from Nature," "The Evolutionist at Large," "Colin Clout's Calendar," and another I can't remember? In one of them is a paper on the Origin of Wheat, in which he puts forth the theory that the grasses, etc., are degraded forms which were once insect-fertilised, summing up his views in the phrase, "Wheat is a degraded lily," or something like that. Now Henslow, in his "Floral Structures,"¹adopts the same theory for all the wind-fertilised or self-fertilised flowers, and he tells me that he is alone in the view. I believe the view is a true one, and I want to give G. Allen the credit [2] [p. 47] of first starting it, and want to see how far he went. If you have or can get this work of his with that paper, can you lend it me for a few days? I know not who to write to for it, as botanists of course ignore it, and G. Allen himself is, I believe, in Algeria.... —

Yours faithfully,

Alfred R. Wallace