he multiple creationists an awful triumph.
It is a wondrous case, and how strange that A. De Candolle should have
ignored it; which he certainly has, as it seems to me. I wrote Lyell a
long geological letter (48/2. "Life and Letters," II., page 74.) about
continents, and I have had a very long and interesting answer; but
I cannot in the least gather his opinion about all your continental
extensionists; and I have written again beseeching a verdict. (48/3.
In the tenth edition of the "Principles," 1872, Lyell added a chapter
(Chapter XLI., page 406) on insular floras and faunas in relation to the
origin of species; he here (page 410) gives his reasons against Forbes
as an extensionist.) I asked him to send to you my letter, for as it
was well copied it would not be troublesome to read; but whether worth
reading I really do not know; I have given in it the reasons which make
me strongly opposed to continental extensions.

I was very glad to get your note some days ago: I wish you would think
it worth while, as you intend to have the Laburnum case translated, to
write to "Wien" (that unknown place) (48/4. There is a tradition that
Darwin once asked Hooker where "this place Wien is, where they publish
so many books."), and find out how the Laburnum has been behaving: it
really ought to be known.

The Entada is a beast. (48/5. The large seeds of Entada scandens are
occasionally floated across the Atlantic and cast on the shores of
Europe.); I have never differed from you about the growth of a plant in
a new island being a FAR harder trial than transportal, though certainly
that seems hard enough. Indeed I suspect I go even further than you in
this respect; but it is too long a story.

Thank you for the Aristolochia and Viscum cases: what species were
they? I ask, because oddly these two very genera I have seen advanced
as instances (I forget at present by whom, but by good men) in which
the agency of insects was absolutely necessary for impregnation. In
our British dioecious Viscum I suppose it must be necessary. Was there
anything to show that the stigma was ready for pollen in these two
cases? for it seems that there are many cases in which pollen is shed
long before the stigma is ready. As in our Viscum, insects carry,
sufficiently regularly for impregnation, pollen from flower to flower,
I should think that there must be occasional crosses even in an
hermaphrodite Viscum. I have never heard of bees and butterflies, onl