I am disposed to regard the Western Australian flora as the latest in
point of origin, and I hope to prove it by development, and by the
absence of various types. If Western Australia ever had an old flora, I
am inclined to suppose that it has been destroyed by the invasion of
Eastern types after the union with East Australia. My idea is that these
types worked round by the south, and altered rapidly as they proceeded
westward, increasing in species. Nor can I conceive the Western Island,
when surrounded by sea, harbouring a flora like its present one.

I have been disposed to regard New Caledonia and the New Hebrides as the
parent country of many New Zealand and Australian forms of vegetation,
but we do not know enough of the vegetation of the former to warrant the
conclusion; and after all it would be but a slight modification of your
views.

I very much like your whole working of the problem of the isolation and
connection of New Zealand and Australia _inter se_ and with the
countries north of them, and the whole treatment of that respecting
north and south migration over the globe is admirable....--Ever most
truly yours,

J.D. HOOKER.

* * * * *

SIR J. HOOKER TO A.R. WALLACE

_Royal Gardens, Kew. November 10, 1880._

Dear Mr. Wallace,--I have been waiting to thank you for "Island Life"
till I should have read it through as carefully as I am digesting the
chapters I have finished; but I can delay no longer, if only to say that
I heartily enjoy it, and believe that you have brushed away more cobwebs
that have obscured the subject than any other, besides giving a vast
deal that is new, and admirably setting forth what is old, so as to
throw new light on the whole subject. It is, in short, a first-rate
book. I am making notes for you, but hitherto have seen no defect of
importance except in the matter of the Bahamas, whose flora is Floridan,
not Cuban, in so far as we know it....--Very truly yours,

JOS. D. HOOKER.

* * * * *

TO SIR W. THISELTON-DYER

_Pen-y-bryn, St. Peter's Road, Croydon. January 7, 1881._

Dear Mr. Thiselton-Dyer,--If I had had your lecture before me when
writing the last chapters of my book I should certainly have quoted you
in support of the view of the northern origin of the Southern flora by
migration along existing continents. On reading it again I am surprised
to find how often you refer to this; but when I r