Helena. I hope you will not think me a confoundedly
disagreeable fellow.
I may mention a capital essay which I received a few mouths ago from
Axel Blytt[110] on the distribution of the plants of Scandinavia; showing
the high probability of there having been secular periods alternately
wet and dry; and of the important part which they have played in
distribution.
I wrote to Forel, who is always at work on ants, and told him of your
views about the dispersal of the blind Coleoptera, and asked him to
observe.
I spoke to Hooker about your book, and feel sure that he would like
nothing better than to consider the distribution of plants in relation
to your views; but he seemed to doubt whether he should ever have time.
And now I have done my jottings, and once again congratulate you on
having brought out so grand a work. I have been a little disappointed at
the review in _Nature_[111]--My dear Wallace, yours sincerely,
CHARLES DARWIN.
* * * * *
_Rose Hill, Dorking. July 23, 1876._
My dear Darwin,--I should have replied sooner to your last kind and
interesting letters, but they reached me in the midst of my packing
previous to removal here, and I have only just now got my books and
papers in a get-at-able state.
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