Summary

Has sent FM’s account of Pandanus and Oxalis to Nature ["Leaves injured at night by free radiation", Nature 24 (1881): 459].

Is crossing heterostyled plants.

Hopes to get his notes on bloom together.

Summary

Earthworm book with printer.

Has sent FM’s observations on paraheliotropism to Nature ["Movement of leaves", Collected papers 2: 228–9].

Plants with differently coloured anthers.

Intends gathering together his notes on "bloom".

Summary

CD interested by FM’s facts on movement of plants; has sent some to Nature ["Movement of leaves", Collected papers 2: 228–9]. Greatly admires FM’s work. Suggests an experiment to investigate movement in Phyllanthus.

Summary

Movement of plants to shake off water: FM’s invaluable observations.

Inquires about "bloom" on leaves.

Fertilisation of Melastomataceae, roles of the two sets of anthers.

Summary

Is in Cambridge with his son, resting

and reading F. M. Balfour’s Comparative embryology [1880–1].

Sent FM a copy of Earthworms.

Summary

Thanks CD for his letter of 21 June [13212].

Is sending seeds of Oxalis sepium, which came from a cross between a plant with long pistils and another with pistils intermediate in length. Perhaps some of the plants that come from them will have short pistils.

FM does not know who told Dr B [Wilhelm Breitenbach] that he had lost a whole library in the flood. In fact, he lost only a few books that he had left behind thinking they were safe where they were.

Has taken the opportunity of a recent cold spell to test CD’s views on nyctitropism [night movements] in plants. Describes Pandanus and Oxalis sepium.

Has just received CD’s letter of 4 July and he is glad that his observations on the effects of rain on plants interested CD.

Summary

Waxy secretion or "bloom" on leaves.

FM’s article on Crotalaria.

Summary

FM’s view on meaning of two-coloured stamens in many flowers; CD has been looking through his old notes on dimorphism for supporting evidence. Intends to send extract of FM’s letter to Nature or to Linnean Society.

Summary

Summarises the "remarkable facts about the movements of plants" in Fritz Müller’s letter of January [12996]. CD comments that Müller’s observations support the conclusion that he and Francis Darwin arrived at – that leaves go to sleep to escape the full effects of radiation.

Summary

Has just received CD’s letter of 12 April [13113]. To answer CD’s query, Heteranthera reniformis is an amphibious plant that grows as well on moist ground as it does in ditches filled with water.

For the past few weeks has been observing Phyllanthus plants that had shown the irregular movement in leaves returning from the positions assumed at night, but none has repeated the irregularity. Perhaps the progeny from the seeds he has collected will inherit the tendency for irregular movement.

Describes his observations of the power of movement in Cassia, Desmodium, and a few other plants.

Paul Mayer has identified seven new species of insects FM found in nine different species of figs.

Summary

Thanks CD for letter of 10 September [13326]

and for copy of Nature.

Reports on Lagerstroemia experiments.

Has been making observations on what happens to plants following heavy rain. Sends CD three specimens to show how dirt attaches to the undersides of leaves.

Summary

Is experimenting with effect of ammonium carbonate on chlorophyll and roots, but finds the results confusing.

Julius von Wiesner has published a book reinterpreting CD’s observations in Movement in plants [see 13422].

Summary

In his last letter FM told CD about four flowers of Lagerstroemia that he had fertilised with the yellow pollen of another variety or species and which had subsequently fallen off. He has now repeated the experiment using the yellow pollen of a different variety and successfully produced good fruit as large as that fertilised with green pollen.

Summary

Wants seeds of heterostyled plants to test fertility of illegitimate seedlings.

Offers £100 to FM to replace books lost in flooding.

Summary

Wants plants with two sets of anthers of different colours. Fritz Müller letter [13041a] has made him wish to renew experiments and observations carried out 20 years ago.

Summary

Discusses some of his observations on the sleep movement in plants. Has been studying the leaflets of Crotalaria; has discovered they move to face the setting sun.

Summary

Thanks for CD’s offer of assistance after flood damage.

Comments on Movement in plants. Discusses sleep movements and paraheliotropism of Maranta and other plants.

Describes the fertilisation of figs by Hymenoptera.

Summary

Glad WB has arrived in Brazil. Suggests study of insects and study of fertilisation in Melastomataceae. Want of books is not a serious evil.

Summary

Quotes from a Fritz Müller letter of 9 Aug supporting CD’s views that leaves position themselves at night so as to minimise heat loss by radiation. It is a new fact to CD that leaves take different positions at different seasons.