Page 359.--Rhinochetus is entered in the tabular heading under No. 3 of the
neotropical subregions. [An error: should have been the Australian.--
A.R.W.]

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 collections: 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 months ago from Axel
Blytt (392/2. Axel Blytt, "Essay on the Immigration of the Norwegian
Flora." Christiania, 1876. See Letter 387.) 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 (392/3. See Letter 388.), who is always at work on ants,
and told him 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.