More Letters Of Charles Darwin

LETTER 378. J.D. HOOKER TO CHARLES DARWIN. Kew,
January 20th, 1867.
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.