To Fritz Müller 10 September 1881
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)
Sept. 10th 1881
My dear Sir
Your account of the Pandanus & of Oxalis sepium has interested me so much, that I could not resist sending your account to Nature.—1 You write English so well that your letter might have been printed verbatim; but 2 or 3 trifling alterations seemed to improve the English, without altering the sense.— Many thanks for the seeds, & about the leaves not being wetted when immersed.2 I have from your seeds one fine healthy young plant of Schizolobium, with its first true leaf beginning to expand, so that I shall be able to experimentise on the leaves myself.— I am sorry to say that the tuber of Heteranthera, though treated with the utmost care, showed no signs of life, & Hedychium never arrived.3 It is too much trouble, with too little chance of success, for you to think of sending me living plants.
I have begun crossing heterostyled plants, & selected Linum grandiflorum; but I believe all my labour will be thrown away as in our wretched climate the pods will I fear rot.4
When the winter comes I will put my notes together on the use of the waxy secretion, or bloom, on leaves, fruit &c, & on the movements of the leaves & see what I can make of the subject; but I am somewhat doubtful whether my results will be of much worth.5 Perhaps you may remember that I described in “Insectivorous plants” a really curious phenomenon which I called the aggregation of the protoplasm in the cells of the tentacles. None of the great German Botanists will admit that the moving masses are composed of protoplasm; though it is astonishing to me that anyone could watch the movements & doubt its nature. But these doubts have led me to observe analogous facts, & I hope to succeed in proving my case.6
I often feel rather ashamed of myself, for asking for so many things from you, & for taking up so much of your valuable time; but I can assure you that I feel grateful.
Believe me, my dear Sir, | Yours very sincerely Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Cohn, Ferdinand Julius. 1876a. Insectenfressende Pflanzen. Deutsche Rundschau 2: 441–56.
Darwin, Francis. 1886. On the relation between the ‘bloom’ on leaves and the distribution of the stomata. [Read 4 February 1886.] Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 22 (1885–6): 99–116.
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
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.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13326
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- The British Library (Loan MS 10 no : 54)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13326,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13326.xml