To Otto Busch 26 June 1877
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)
June 26th 1877
Dear Sir
I am much obliged to you for your very kind note & present of your work on Schopenhauer.1 I will endeavour to read it but fear it may be too difficult as I am but a poor German scholar.
Many thanks for your remarks on bees and clover. When I spoke of the red clover producing few seeds last spring, I stated that I supposed that it was due to the extreme rarity of Humble-bees (Bombus), for I have ascertained that this plant requires insects for its fertilisation, & I knew that Hive-bees do not visit the flowers, except sometimes for a secretion on the outside of the calyx, or for sucking the nectar from the outside through holes previously bitten by Humble-bees.2
With much respect & my thanks, I remain | Dear Sir | yours faithfully | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Busch, Otto. 1877. Arthur Schopenhauer: Beitrag zu einer Dogmatik der Religionslosen. Heidelberg: F. Bassermann.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.
Origin 6th ed.: The origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 6th edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.
Summary
Thanks OB for his work on Schopenhauer [Arthur Schopenhauer. Beitrag zu einer Dogmatik der Religionslosen (1877)]
and for his remarks on bees and clover. When CD spoke, last spring, of the few seeds produced by red clover, he supposed it was due to rarity of humble-bees.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11019
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Otto Georg Moritz (Otto) Busch
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University (bMs 7)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11019,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11019.xml