My dear Wallace.

The case which you give is a very striking one, & I had overlooked it in Nature.—¹ But I remain as great a heretic as ever. Any supposition seems to me more probable than that the seeds of plants sh^d have been blown from the Mountains of Abyssinia or other central mountains of Africa to the Mountains of Madagascar.—² It seems to me almost infinitely more probable that Madagascar extended far to the South during the Glacial period & that the S. Hemisphere was according to Croll then more temperate;³ & that the whole of Africa was then peopled with some temperate forms, which crossed chiefly by agency of Birds & sea-currents, & some few by the wind from the shores of Africa to Madagascar, subsequently ascending to the mountains.⁴

How lamentable it is that two men sh^d take such widely different views, with the same facts before them; but this seems to be almost regularly our case, & much do I regret it.—

I am fairly well, but always feel half dead with fatigue.— I heard but an indifferent account of your health some time ago,⁵ but trust that you are now somewhat stronger.—

Believe me, my dear Wallace | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin