Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

ON THE PACIFIC COAST 341
in the middle of April reported the whole country clad with
verdure, and the grass in the hollows up to the horses' girths.
[The following extract from a letter to Mr.
Bentham, written a few weeks before finally leaving
South America, explains the reasons for his return
home, and concludes his correspondence while
abroad :
]
To Mr. George Bentham
AMOTAPE, NEAR PAYTA, PERU,
April 13, 1864.
During the last twelve months I have experienced
some relief from my pains, and life has not been
so barely tolerable a burthen as during the three
preceding years ; but
I see plainly I can never hope
to regain my former activity, or indeed be able
to undertake any occupation whatever, and I have
made up my mind to return to England, my present
intention being to embark at Payta for Southampton
on the ist of May. . . .
[The following extract from a letter to Mr.
Daniel Hanbury, written from Hurstpierpoint two
years after his return to England, gives a curious
piece of information as to his friend the late Dr.
Jameson of Quito, which is to some extent a vindication
of that botanist's character and abilities.
Referring to Dr. Jameson's Flora of Ecuador,
which Spruce says is extremely imperfect, and
mostly a translation from other works, with no
original descriptions of plants, and whole genera
altogether unnoticed, he has the: following remarks