WCP643

[1]

Waldron Edge, Duppas Hill,Croydon

Nov[embe]r. 14^th 1879

My dear Carruthers¹

Thanks for your kindness in speaking to the Duke of Bedford. I have not however heard from him and have today sent in my application with copies of my testimonials. Should I get the post, the influence of the Duke & others may be perhaps brought to bear on the Committee to induce them to allow some part at least of my plan to be tried, as I hear they are now strongly opposed to it. "They want", they say, "an English forest[?] ". —

[2] I see in the paper today that you have just received Miers’ Brazilian Collections of plants. That puts me in mind of a subject I am much interested² in — the getting some of our collections arranged geographically. Owing to all our great general collections of animals & plants being arranged systematically, it is impossible without enormous labour to get any general notion of the peculiarities of a country, district or continent, and numberless interesting points remain overlooked. Would it not be a great advantage to have one great collection arranged primarily in great Geographical Divisions, — [3] South ^{& Tropical} American, N. American, — African, Australian, Indo-Malayan & Euro-Asiatic plants, for example, being kept together. I cannot see that there would be any great inconvenience in this, even for the student of a natural order a wide genus, for he would easily go over the plants of each region, and would in fact have his attention conveniently called to their relative abundance or peculiar facies[?], or other facts which he might overlook while working in the ordinary manner. The inconveniences of the ordinary method for³ the student of Geog[raphical]. Dist[ribution]. are on the contrary enormous, as he cannot get at the species of any given area or island without going over [4] the entire collection or hunting through voluminous records of gifts & purchases

I do not know whether you have the power to make such an innovation, but if you have I suggest it for your consideration, as supplying a great want, and at the same time setting a much needed example.

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