To Fritz Müller 17 August 1868
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E. [Freshwater]
Aug 17— 1868
My dear Sir
I have received your letter of June 17th & am much obliged for it. I am glad that you have sent the additional discussion on the primordial form of insects & have this day forwarded it to Mr Dallas, together with your remarks on the title. I feel sure however that Murray wd object to so unusual a word as Carcinology.1 I have not heard lately what progress Mr Dallas has made. With respect to profits I fear it is a case of cooking the hare before it is caught, but I have no claim whatever to them.2 Very many thanks for the dried dimorphic flowers; they seem to offer a grand case, & whenever I come to this subject again I will see whether Hooker can name the genus.3 In a former letter you told me that you suspected that some water plant (name forgotten) was trimorphic; I shd like some time to hear about this.4 Also hereafter about Escholzia.5 Your case of the Marantaceous plant seems extremely curious & I hope you will investigate it & write a little paper on the subject.6 Thanks also for the many & curious facts about the coloured & attached seeds; such cases seem quite common with you.
I am astonished about the Wulffia; what a puzzle it is how a pappus cd have been converted into an attractive berry; that is if the calyx is the part which has been modified. 7
My health has been very indifferent for the last 2 months & I have had to stop my work on sexual selection; & have observed nothing & done nothing of late. I am writing this by the sea side, but shall return home in a few days & then I must try if I can do any thing.8
With cordial thanks for your letter which like all the others has interested me much I remain my dear Sir | yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin
If ever you form any opinion whether against or for Pangenesis, pray let me hear, as I value greatly your judgment.—9
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Müller, Fritz. 1871. Ueber den Trimorphismus der Pontederien. Jenaische Zeitschrift für Medicin und Naturwissenschaft 6: 74–8.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
FM’s additions for English edition [1869] of Für Darwin.
Dimorphic plants.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-6320
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller
- Sent from
- Freshwater Down letterhead
- Source of text
- The British Library (Loan MS 10 no 25)
- Physical description
- LS(A) 3pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6320,” accessed on 17 August 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6320.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16