uld
all have been theoretically right by chance. Have you at Kew any
Eucalyptus or Australian Mimosa which sets its seeds? if so, would it
be very troublesome to observe when pollen is mature, and whether
pollen-tubes enter stigma readily immediately that pollen is mature or
some little time afterwards? though if pollen is not mature for some
little time after flower opens, the stigma might be ready first, though
according to C.C. Sprengel this is a rarer case. I wrote to Muller for
chance of his being able and willing to observe this.

Your fact of greater number of European plants (N.B.--But do you mean
greater percentage?) in Australia than in S. America is astounding and
very unpleasant to me; for from N.W. America (where nearly the
same flora exists as in Canada?) to T. del Fuego, there is far more
continuous high land than from Europe to Tasmania. There must have,
I should think, existed some curious barrier on American High-Road:
dryness of Peru, excessive damp of Panama, or some other confounded
cause, which either prevented immigration or has since destroyed them.
You say I may ask questions, and so I have on enclosed paper; but it
will of course be a very different thing whether you will think them
worth labour of answering.

May I keep the lists now returned? otherwise I will have them copied.

You said that you would give me a few cases of Australian forms
and identical species going north by Malay Archipelago mountains to
Philippines and Japan; but if these are given in your "Introduction"
this will suffice for me. (340/3. See Hooker's "Introductory Essay,"
page l.)

Your lists seem to me wonderfully interesting.

According to my theoretical notions, I am not satisfied with what you
say about local plants in S.W. corner of Australia (340/4. Sir Joseph
replied in an undated letter: "Thanks for your hint. I shall be very
cautious how I mention any connection between the varied flora and poor
soil of S.W. Australia...It is not by the way only that the species
are so numerous, but that these and the genera are so confoundedly well
marked. You have, in short, an incredible number of VERY LOCAL, WELL
MARKED genera and species crowded into that corner of Australia." See
"Introductory Essay to the Flora of Tasmania," 1859, page li.), and the
seeds not readily germinating: do be cautious on this; consider lapse
of time. It does not suit my stomach at all. It is like Wollaston's
confined land-snails in Porto Sa