Hoping you are well and getting on with your next volumes, believe me yours very faithfully,
ALFRED R. WALLACE.
Freshwater, Isle of Wight. August 19, 1868.
My dear Wallace,—Thanks for your note. I did sometimes think of going to Norwich, for I should have very much liked it, but it has been quite out of the question. We have been here for five weeks for a change, and it has done me some little good; but I have been forced to live the life of a drone, and for a month before leaving home I was unable to do anything and had to stop all work.
We return to Down to-morrow.
Hooker has been here for two or three days, so that I [pg 220]have had much talk about his Address. I am glad that you will be there.
It is real good news that your book is so advanced that you are negotiating about its publication.
With respect to dimorphic plants: it is a great puzzle, but I fancy I partially see my way—too long for a letter and too speculative for publication. The groundwork of the acquirement of such peculiar fertility (for what you say about any other distinct individual being, as it would appear, sufficient, is very true) rests on the stamens and pistil having varied first in relative length, as actually occurs irrespective of dimorphism, and the peculiar kind of fertility characteristic of dimorphic and the trimorphic plants having been secondarily acquired. Pangenesis makes very few converts: G.H. Lewes is one.
I had become, before my nine weeks' horrid interruption of all work, extremely interested in sexual selection and was making fair progress. In truth, it has vexed me much to find that the further I get on, the more I differ from you about the females being dull-coloured for protection. I can now hardly express myself as strongly even as in the "Origin." This has much decreased the pleasure of my work.