WALLACE, Alfred Russel.

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Autograph letter signed, on British endemic flora. An encouraging and insightful letter demonstrating Wallace's process for establishing his lists of endemic flora to Britain. The lists first appeared in Island Life (1880). He continuously gathered evidence for revised editions, the third of which came out in 1911. The recipient was William Haddon Beeby (1849-1910), an amateur botanist who specialized in the flora of Shetland and Surrey. Like Wallace, he was engaged in continuous revision and published updated versions of his research on Shetland between 1887 and 1909. He was also an expert on the genus Sparganium.The letter displays Wallace's attitude: "I hold that the burden of proof rests with the other side - that is, that it is best to remain in the reputed endemic list till they are proved to be not endemic". Wallace encourages Beeby to be more confident when labelling things as endemic. He references the plants Anthyllis vulneraria and Cerastium nigrescens - the latter of which was the focus of Beeby's 1887 and 1898 papers - and emphasises that any unique characteristics, "however small", might indicate an endemic variety. Wallace also emphasises obtaining the "the opinion of some fairly competent botanist". He refers to the controversy over the moth Platyptilia similidactyla, which was listed as endemic to Britain in the first edition of Island Life, but was taken out of the second on the evidence of Philip Zeller, "the greatest continental authority"; Zeller later ad

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