W. January 20, 1869._
Dear Darwin,--It will give me very great pleasure if you will allow me
to dedicate my little book of Malayan Travels to you, although it will
be far too small and unpretending a work to be worthy of that honour.
Still, I have done what I can to make it a vehicle for communicating a
taste for the higher branches of Natural History, and I know that you
will judge it only too favourably. We are in the middle of the second
volume, and if the printers will get on, shall be out next month.
Have you seen in the last number of the _Quarterly Journal of Science_
the excellent remarks on _Fraser's_ article on Natural Selection failing
as to Man? In one page it gets to the heart of the question, and I have
written to the editor to ask who the author is.
My friend Spruce's paper on Palms is to be read to-morrow evening at the
Linnean. He tells me it contains a discovery which he calls "alteration
of function." He found a clump of Geonema all of which were females, and
the next year the same clump were all males! He has found other facts
analogous to this, and I have no doubt the subject is one that will
interest you.
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