From Fritz Müller 12 September 1875
Summary
Has read CD’s book on Drosera [Insectivorous plants] and found that it presents new material and is very interesting.
Has discovered that the parasites he thought he had found in Melipona nests are in fact true females. It is remarkable that they differ so greatly from the sterile females and males of their species.
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 12 Sept 1875 |
Classmark: | Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 318; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (PrP 08-0011) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10155A |
From Fritz Müller 25 December 1875
Summary
"Sambaquis", or shell mounds accumulated by former inhabitants of the coast, contain shells of some animals that FM has never seen living.
Ants that live on imbauba trees (Cecropia) are attracted by small bodies at base of each petiole.
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 25 Dec 1875 |
Classmark: | Nature, 17 February 1876, pp. 304–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10324 |
From Fritz Müller 25 March 1877
Summary
Thanks CD for new [2d] edition of Orchids.
Mentions some observations on dimorphic plants.
Reports on a third species of Pontederia [see Forms of flowers, p. 185].
Describes some unusual grasses.
Reports rumours from southern Brazil concerning the existence of a gigantic subterranean animal.
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 25 Mar 1877 |
Classmark: | DAR 111: A89–90 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10911 |
From Fritz Müller 19 October 1877
Summary
Doubts that glands of calyx of cleistogamic Malpighiaceae serve as protection.
Some species of Solanum bear long- and short-styled flowers on same plant.
Changing colours of some flowers may show insects the proper moment for fertilisation.
Doubts that the style of Pontederia cordata changes length.
Sexual difference in wings of some butterflies due to development in male of scales that emit odours to excite female.
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 19 Oct 1877 |
Classmark: | Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 363–4; Nature, 29 November 1877, pp. 78–9 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11191 |
From Fritz Müller [27 November 1877]
Summary
Sends proboscis of a Sphinx-moth that is 22 cms long.
Discusses eleven species of butterfly which visit Lantana, a plant which blooms only for three days and whose flowers are yellow on the first day, orange on the second, and purple on the third. Most species only visit the flowers when they are yellow.
Describes and draws the odiferous organs of a Sphinx-moth.
Describes a secondary sexual character of several species of Callidryas and other Pierinæ: the costal margin of the anterior wing is sharply serrated in the males, while it is smooth in the females.
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [27 Nov 1877] |
Classmark: | Transactions of the Entomological Society of London (1878): (Proceedings) ii–iii |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11255F |
From Fritz Müller 20 February 1878
Summary
Reports butterfly species that apparently mimic each other and gives details of some odoriferous species.
[Letter copied in Raphael Meldola’s hand from original sent to Meldola with 11449.]
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 20 Feb 1878 |
Classmark: | Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Hope Entomological Collections 1350: Hope/Westwood Archive, Darwin folder) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11368 |
From Fritz Müller 31 May 1881
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 31 May 1881 |
Classmark: | Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 410–11 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11385A |
From Fritz Müller 5 April 1878
Summary
Observations on a sensitive Mimosa.
Comments on structure and positioning of "odoriferous organs" of moths and butterflies,
and feeding habits of butterfly larvae.
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 5 Apr 1878 |
Classmark: | Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Hope Entomological Collections 1350: Hope/Westwood Archive, Darwin folder) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11463 |
From Fritz Müller 21 July 1878
Summary
Is sending CD the seeds of a beautiful Cassia given to him by a friend. He sketched the unripe fruit a few months ago. This plant is rare in the area around Sta Catharina. He has found their largest and most beautiful butterfly Callidryas manippe near this tree and its caterpillars living on its leaves. Comments on how remarkable it is to find a species limited to living on a single tree in so large an area.
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 21 July 1878 |
Classmark: | Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 382 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11623A |
From Fritz Müller 21 January 1879
Summary
Has lately found frog that has eggs on its back.
Pupae of caddis-flies living on rocks have lost fringe of hairs on their feet. In species that live in the water these are used for swimming.
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 21 Jan 1879 |
Classmark: | Nature, 20 March 1879, pp. 463–4 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11839 |
From Fritz Müller 9 January 1881
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.
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 9 Jan 1881 |
Classmark: | DAR 99: 217–20 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-12996 |
From Fritz Müller 7 February 1881
Summary
Describes variability in the stamens and pollen of Lagerstroemia, which CD spoke of in Forms of flowers.
Also reports on similar phenomena in Pontederiacea (Heteranthera reniformis).
Has received from Paul Mayer an interesting paper on metamorphosis in Palaemonetes varians, which is also being studied by J. E. V. Boas in Denmark. Shows differences between larval development in Danish forms and those found in southern Italy.
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 7 Feb 1881 |
Classmark: | Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 406–7 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13041A |
From Fritz Müller 28 February 1881
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.
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 28 Feb 1881 |
Classmark: | Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 409 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13068A |
From Fritz Müller 31 May 1881
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.
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 31 May 1881 |
Classmark: | Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 410–11 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13185A |
From Fritz Müller 9 and 10 August 1881
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.
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 9 and 10 Aug 1881 |
Classmark: | Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 416–17; Nature, 15 September 1881, p. 459 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13284A |
From Fritz Müller 6, 7, and 9 September 1881
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.
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 6, 7 and 9 Sept 1881 |
Classmark: | DAR 171: 287 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13318 |
From Fritz Müller 29 October 1881
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.
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 29 Oct 1881 |
Classmark: | Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 419–20 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13441A |
From Fritz Müller 1 January 1882
Summary
In answer to CD’s query, FM thinks the seeds he sent were those of the sensitive Mimosa.
Reports his observations of movement of leaves of Bauhinia grandiflora and B. brasiliensis. They do not "sleep" in hot weather.
Sends some seeds of Pontederia he had fertilised.
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 1 Jan 1882 |
Classmark: | DAR 106: C19 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13593 |
From Fritz Müller 31 March 1882
Summary
Apologises for not having answered CD’s letters of 19 December [13564] and 4 January [13599] sooner.
Gives the results of his crossing experiments with Pontederia (Eichhornia) crassipes and P. azurea. Has also begun experiments on Heteranthera reniformis.
Thanks CD for sending three parts of the first volume of Bentham and Hooker’s Genera plantarum.
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 31 Mar 1882 |
Classmark: | Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 424–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13750A |
From Fritz Müller 12 August 1865
Summary
Thanks CD for his paper on climbing plants. Lists the many genera that he has found in his area in a short period since reading CD’s paper. [See 4881.]
Author: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 12 Aug 1865 |
Classmark: | Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 72–3. |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4881A |