How I wish mountains of New Caledonia were well worked!...
LETTER 361. TO J.D. HOOKER.
(361/1. In the earlier part of this letter Mr. Darwin refers to a review on Planchon in the "Nat. History Review," April 1865. There can be no doubt, therefore, that "Thomson's article" must be the review of Jordan's "Diagnoses d'especes nouvelles ou meconnues," etc., in the same number, page 226. It deals with "lumpers" and "splitters," and a possible trinomial nomenclature.)
April 17th [1865].
I have been very much struck by Thomson's article; it seems to me quite remarkable for its judgment, force, and clearness. It has interested me greatly. I have sometimes loosely speculated on what nomenclature would come to, and concluded that it would be trinomial. What a name a plant will formally bear with the author's name after genus (as some recommend), and after species and subspecies! It really seems one of the greatest questions which can be discussed for systematic Natural History. How impartially Thomson adjusts the claims of "hair-splitters" and "lumpers"! I sincerely hope he will pretty often write reviews or essays. It is an old subject of grief to me, formerly in Geology and of late in Zoology and Botany, that the very best men (excepting those who have to write principles and elements, etc.) read so little, and give up nearly their whole time to original work. I have often thought that science would progress more if there was more reading. How few read any long and laborious papers! The only use of publishing such seems to be as a proof that the author has given time and labour to his work.
LETTER 362. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, October 22nd and 28th, 1865.
As for the anthropologists being a bete noire to scientific men, I am not surprised, for I have just skimmed through the last "Anthrop. Journal," and it shows, especially the long attack on the British Association, a curious spirit of insolence, conceit, dullness, and vulgarity. I have read with uncommon interest Travers' short paper on the Chatham Islands. (362/1. See Travers, H.H., "Notes on the Chatham Islands," "Linn. Soc. Journ." IX., October 1865. Mr. Travers says he picked up a seed of Edwardsia, evidently washed ashore. The stranded logs indicated a current from New Zealand.) I remember your pitching into me with terrible ferocity because I said I thought the seed of Edwardsia might have been floated from Chili to New Zealand: now what do you say, my young man, to the three young trees of the same size on one spot alone of the island, and with the cast-up pod on the shore? If it were not for those unlucky wingless birds I could believe that the group had been colonised by accidental means; but, as it is, it appears by far to me the best evidence of continental extension ever observed. The distance, I see, is 360 miles. I wish I knew whether the sea was deeper than between New Zealand and Australia. I fear you will not admit such a small accident as the wingless birds having been transported on icebergs. Do suggest, if you have a chance, to any one visiting the Islands again, to look out for erratic boulders there. How curious his statement is about the fruit-trees and bees! (362/2. "Since the importation of bees, European fruit-trees and bushes have produced freely." Travers, "Linn. Soc. Journal," IX., page 144.) I wish I knew whether the clover had spread before the bees were introduced...
I saw in the "Gardeners' Chronicle" the sentence about the "Origin" dying in Germany, but did not know it was by Seemann.
LETTER 363. TO C. LYELL. Down, February 7th [1866].
I am very much obliged for your note and the extract, which have interested me extremely. I cannot disbelieve for a moment Agassiz on Glacial action after all his experience, as you say, and after that capital book with plates which he early published (363/1. "Etudes sur les Glaciers"; Neuchatel, 1840.); as for his inferences and reasoning on the valley of the Amazon that is quite another question, nor can he have seen all the regions to which Mrs.