Prof. Miquel, of Utrecht, begs me to ask you for your carte, and offers his
in return. I grieve to bother you on such a subject. I am sick and tired
of this carte correspondence. I cannot conceive what Humboldt's Pyrenean
violet is: no such is mentioned in Webb, and no alpine one at all. I am
sorry I forgot to mention the stronger African affinity of the eastern
Canary Islands. Thank you for mentioning it. I cannot admit, without
further analysis, that most of the peculiar Atlantic Islands genera were
derived from Europe, and have since become extinct there. I have rather
thought that many are only altered forms of existing European genera; but
this is a very difficult point, and would require a careful study of such
genera and allies with this object in view. The subject has often
presented itself to me as a grand one for analytic botany. No doubt its
establishment would account for the community of the peculiar genera on the
several groups and islets, but whilst so many species are common we must
allow for a good deal of migration of peculiar genera too.

By Jove! I will write out next mail to the Governor of St. Helena for boxes
of earth, and you shall have them to grow. Thanks for telling me of having
suggested to me the working out of proportions of plants with irregular
flowers in islands. I thought it was a deuced deal too good an idea to
have arisen spontaneously in my block, though I did not recollect your
having done so. No doubt your suggestion was crystallised in some corner
of my sensorium. I should like to work out the point.

Have you Kerguelen Land amongst your volcanic islands? I have a curious
book of a sealer who was wrecked on the island, and who mentions a volcanic
mountain and hot springs at the S.W. end; it is called the "Wreck of the
Favourite." (378/1. "Narrative of the Wreck of the 'Favourite' on the
Island of Desolation; detailing the Adventures, Sufferings and Privations
of John Munn; an Historical Account of the Island and its Whale and Sea