[page] 4a

Naturalist answers birthday greeting. A. R. Wallace sends letter.

[page] 4b

The general biology class, about 135 students, having become much interested in the character and work of Dr. Wallace, and in his present position as the last survivor of the great English naturalists associated with Darwin, ventured to send him a greeting on the occasion of his eighty-ninth birthday, which occurred Jan. 5, 1912. To this Dr. Wallace replied in the following charming letter, which will always be preserved in the Department of Biology, to be shown to successive generations of studnets.

Old Orchard, Broadstone, Dorset

January 12th, 1912.

To the Biology students in the University of Colorado, U.S.A.

My dear Young Friends:

Thank you much for your very kind greetings. I am much pleased that so many of you are readers of my books. The wonders of nature have been the delight and solace of my life. From the day when I first saw a bee-orchis (Ophrys apifera) in ignorant astonishment, to my first view of the grand forests of the Amazon; thence to the Malay Archipelago, where every fresh island with its marvellous novelties and beauties was an additional delight—nature has afforded me an ever-increasing rapture, and the attempt to solve some of her myriad problems an ever-growing sense of mystery and awe. And now, in my wild garden and greenhouse, the endless diversities of plant life renew my enjoyments; and the ever-changing pageants of the seasons impress me more than ever in my earlier days.

I sincerely wish you all some of the delight in the mere contemplation of nature's mysteries and beauties which I have enjoyed, and still enjoy.

Yours very truly,
Alfred R. Wallace.