To Fritz Müller 21 June 1881
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.) [Glenridding House, Patterdale.]
June 21. 1881—
My dear Sir
I shd. be much obliged, if you could without much trouble send me seeds of any Heterostyled herbaceous plant (i.e. a species which would flower soon), as it would be easy work for me to raise some illegitimate seedlings, to test their degree of infertility.— The plant ought not to have very small flowers.— I hope that you received the copies of “Nature” with extracts from your interesting letters, & I was glad to see a notice in Kosmos on Phyllanthus.—1 I am writing this note away from my home, but before I left I had the satisfaction of seeing Phyllanthus sleeping.2 Some of the seeds which you so kindly sent me would not germinate or had not then germinated.3
I received a letter yesterday from Dr. Breitenbach at Porto Alegre, & he tells me that you lost many of your books in the devastating flood from which you suffered.—4 Forgive me, but why should you not order through your brother Hermann books &c to the amount of 100£ & I would send a cheque to him, as soon as I heard the exact amount?5 This would be no inconvenience to me: on the contrary it would be a honour & lasting pleasure to me to have aided you in your invaluable scientific work to this small & trifling extent.—
Believe me always with the highest respect. | Yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Movement in plants: The power of movement in plants. By Charles Darwin. Assisted by Francis Darwin. London: John Murray. 1880.
Müller, Fritz. 1881e. Verirrte Blätter. Kosmos 9: 141–2.
Pfeffer, Wilhelm. 1875. Die periodische Bewegungen der Blattorgane. Leipzig: Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann.
Summary
Wants seeds of heterostyled plants to test fertility of illegitimate seedlings.
Offers £100 to FM to replace books lost in flooding.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13212
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller
- Sent from
- Patterdale Down letterhead
- Source of text
- The British Library (Loan MS 10 no 52)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13212,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13212.xml