From Hermann Müller 7 August 1875
Lippstadt,
Aug 7. | 1875.
My dear Sir,
My brothers “Bestäubungsversuche an Abutilon-arten” are published in ⟨2 words destroyed⟩1
I returned but a few days ago from an excursion of four weeks into the Alps and received when returning your admirable work on insectivorous plants which I have begun reading with extraordinary interest and for which I express to you my hearty thanks. Drosera rotundifolia being a common plant near Lippstadt, I am greatly rejoiced of your thorough examination of it, as I will have opportunity of seeing with my own eyes what you have detected.2
My excursions into the Alps are spent to the examination of alpine flowers and their fertilisation by insects. Last year I have published some articles in “Nature” in order to show that in the alpine region Lepidoptera are of greater importance as fertilisers of flowers than in lower localities, whilst Apidae, on the contrary, are greatly dimi⟨nished⟩3 ⟨ ⟩ ⟨ ⟩tation, ⟨ ⟩ ⟨con⟩vinced myself that the very outpost of flowers, in the subnivale region, is chiefly cross-fertilised by Diptera (Muscidae and Syrphidae) and that in many subnivale flowers adapted to Diptera cross-fertilisation takes place so regularly, that the possibility of self-fertilisation has been lost; for instance in most species of Saxifraga.4
I hope some more excursions into the Alps, to be made during the following years, will enable me to publish an essay on alpine flowers and their fertilisation by insects.5
Yours very sincerely | H Müller.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Müller, Fritz. 1871–3. Bestaubungsversuche an Abutilon-Arten. Jenaische Zeitschrift für Medicin und Naturwissenschaft 7: 22–45, 441–50.
Müller, Hermann. 1873–7. On the fertilisation of flowers by insects and on the reciprocal adaptations of both. Nature, 3 July 1873, pp. 187–9; 10 July 1873, pp. 205–6; 25 September 1873, pp. 433–5; 20 November 1873, pp. 44–6; 1 January 1874, pp. 164–6; 18 June 1874, pp. 129–30; 12 November 1874, pp. 32–3; 10 December 1874, pp. 110–12; 31 December 1874, pp. 169–71; 20 May 1875, pp. 50–1; 8 July 1875, pp. 190–1; 13 January 1876, pp. 210–12; 10 February 1876, pp. 289–92; 22 June 1876, pp. 173–5; 8 February 1877, pp. 317–19; 29 March 1877, pp. 473–5; 11 October 1877, pp. 507–9.
Müller, Hermann. 1881a. Alpenblumen, ihre Befruchtung durch Insekten: und ihre Anpassungen an dieselben. Leipzig: W. Engelmann.
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Variation 2d ed.: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1875.
Summary
Thanks for Insectivorous plants.
Believes Lepidoptera are of greater importance as fertilisers in alpine regions than in lowlands.
The famous stone pits of Ohningen are for sale.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10110
- From
- Heinrich Ludwig Hermann (Hermann) Müller
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Lippstadt
- Source of text
- DAR 171: 304
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp inc
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10110,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10110.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23
