[[1]]
Wrottesley Staffordshire
Ja[nuar]y 6th. 1859*1
Dear A [Asa] Gray*2
I have nothing particular to say beyond that I have for the first time gone through your
U[nited]. S[tates]. Exp[loring]. Exp[edition]. & am very hungry for more of it. Are American
Sympathies so strong with France that you are going to add another to their long list of
unfinished national Botanical works? or are we to see Vol[ume]. II within a reasonable
time? My object has been to get a general idea of the Fiji .&c Tahiti & Sandwich Island*3
floras. I am working really hard at the preliminary Essay to the Tasmanian Flora, "On the
[[2]] vegetation of Australia" & am trying to trace the extent of the Australian Elements in
the Pacific, this element extends in force to N[ew]. Zeal[an]d, Norfolk Island, N[ew].
Caledonia & N[ew]. Hebrides*4; but immediately beyond -- it appears to die out. In the Fijis
the Flora is, in so far as I can see, mainly Indian as to types; & though of course there are
Australian types there too, they seem to be unaccountably few; -- is this because beyond
N[ew]. Hebrides [Vanuatu] &c we have lost all [word crossed out, illeg.] rocks but Volcanic, & Entered
upon another Geological Formation or perhaps Era? I do want from you this continuation of
the Fiji &c to Tahiti Flora, & I also want to understand the Sandwich Islands. I am more
than ever convinced that we must look to an old Southern Continent for the ancient locale
[[3]] of the Australian Flora, & for the marvellous fact of the South African types in Australia
being banked up in heaps at the S[outh]. W[est]. corner of that continent, which is
geographically nearest South Africa -- why are all the Polynesian types & species in
Australia almost confined to the Eastern shores? so markedly that there is scarcely one of these in
the S[outh]. W[est]. Australia & not one of them that is not also in S[outh]. E[ast]. -- S[outh]. W[est].
Australia is not only most like CBS.[?] but least like Polynesia. Then too I have a curious
evidence of persistence of type in Australia in the Banksia ericifolia cones (beautifully
preserved) from under vast lava beds in Victoria in strata referred (on Zoological evidence)
to the Miocene. I have also Casuarina cone fossil from Bass Straits of apparently the same
species as that existing in [the] same locality & the Phyllotheca of the Australia coal formation
also seems to be Casuarina. Add to this that I
[[4]] have a cone undistinguishable from Araucaria excelsa from the oolite of England. &
you will acknowledge that I have as pretty a phyto--geological kettle of fish as one may
wish -- It is true that all these species may be different from existing, but that does not
solve the difficulty, it only shelves it -- the problem remains, that typical forms that now
have one Geographical range then had a different one, & how are we to connect them.
I am determined to start in my investigations on a different principle & to try & square all
my parts with -- (or arrange them by) the most modern doctrines hypotheses, without therefore
adhering to or accepting those doctrines. The old theory of absolute creations, of single of
individuals or pairs is used up! -- Grant them & what's the use of arguing any more. Grant
too that all migration has been
[[5]] effected under existing relations of sea & land, & there is an end of the matter, we may
whistle for another force to effect migration other than the known agency of animals[,]
winds & waters. if we are to assume nothing but these we are stumped! if the course of
migration does not agree with that of birds winds currents &c, so much the worse for the
facts of migration! No religious creed can be more exigeant[sic] exclusive & repressive. -- I
should be wrong to say I disbelieve these doctrines simply because they do not explain my
facts, so long as they did do not contradict them -- I should be as wrong to say that I
believed them as long as I feel think that other doctrines may explain the facts as well or
better than these.
-- I now then start on the assumptions
1. That all vegetable forms are in a state of unstable equilibrium.
2. That the rate of change & extent of change varys[sic] at different times & places depending
on physical conditions; i.e. on *5 extent of surface to change over & of conditions of surface to frustrate & perpetuate change.
3. That the majority of [the] main types of existing forms have survived all geological changes
from
[[6]] the Palaeozoic era downwards to our time
4. That during this interval many of these type forms have migrated from one hemisphere
to another, some of them remaining specifically? unchanged, others generically, others
subordinately.
5. That during their migration they have expanded & contracted; i.e. sometimes thrown off
constellations of varieties that (by Selection) have become new species, at others few, at
others none.
6. That during some epoch there has been any amount of change of land & water.
This does not touch the aboriginal condition of all types, i.e. of species, my object being to
account for existing distribution -- These hypotheses square with all my facts for from them
you would expect to find
I. That as regard extent of variation all existing plants are made up [of] two classes or [word crossed
out, illeg.] assemblages, 1.) a large
[[7]] number of species so distinct from one another that no one doubts their constancy or
disputes their limits, & which one[?] we cannot connect with others or with one another
except by intercalation of an immense series of intermediate forms that do not now exist. 2)
of a vast assemblage that range themselves in clusters of variable forms so slightly
distinguished that no 2 Botanists agree as to their limits, & any one admits that one or a few
small characters alone distinguishes these each from its neigh allies.
II. That as regards rate of variation some forms specific have reclaimed remained principally
unchanged from the oolite downwards, others only generically, whilst others are more
changed still.
III. That Australian forms are found only in the old rocks of Britain.
IV. That the Floras of sinking (Volcanic) Islands, contain a larger proportion of distinct types furthest
removed from than those of continents.
V. That some of these types are (some of them) not at all represented on the continents
others only on the nearest continents.
[[8]] VI. That the further the Island is from [the] Continent the greater is the peculiarity of its
Flora.
VII. That the number & variety of ordinal types is as great in the S[outhern]. temperate
zone[,] where there is so little land[,] as in the North. The numbers & proportions of orders
(& numbers of genera too?) being remaining the same in both. This I can understand if you
will allow me in the South, as large & as a large & varied an available surface as Europe Asia & America
presents; to for if you were to destroy ⅔ of Europe N[orth]. Asia & America you would not
reduce materially the number of genera nor of orders at all. but a vast number of species
would be destroyed.
Jan[uar]y 10th. I wrote the above during the idleness of a few days visit to L[or]d
Wrottesley's -- & have now returned to Kew. I have paid Thomsons[?] debts to Harvey.
I am greivously[sic] shocked at a letter from A. de Candolle*6 begging to be made a
Foreign Fellow of R[oyal]. S[ociety]. on the strength of the value of his *7
ENDNOTES
1. Originally dated 1858, but the 8 has been altered to a 9.
2. Gray, Asa (1810--1888) American botanist. Salutation was originally written as 'Dear
A[sa] but altered to 'Dear Gray'.
3. Sandwich Island was a name given by Captain James Cook to several islands. The
name most commonly refers to the Hawaiian Islands but could also be Efate Island in The
Republic of Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean, or the uninhabited atoll Manuae in the
Cook islands.
4. New Hebrides is now known as Vanuatu.
5. This sentence is written up the right-hand side of the page.
6. Candolle, Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyrame de (1806-1893), French--Swiss botanist.
7. The letter is incomplete, subsequent pages are missing.
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