Reviewers think it necessary to find some fault, and if I were to review you, the sole point which I should blame is your not giving very numerous references. These would save whoever follows you great labour. Occasionally I wished myself to know the authority for certain statements, and whether you or somebody else had originated certain subordinate views. Take the case of a man who had collected largely on some island, for instance St. Helena, and who wished to work out the geographical relations of his collection; he would, I think, feel very blank at not finding in your work precise references to all that had been written on St. 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[111] 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[112]—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.
And first, many thanks for your close observation in detecting the two absurd mistakes in the tabular headings.