From Hugo de Vries1   17 November 1875

Würzburg

17 Nov 75.

Hochverehrter Herr

Empfangen Sie meinen besten Dank für Ihren letzten Brief.2 Ich weiss nicht ob ich im nächsten Sommer wieder die Gelegenheit haben werde, meine Untersuchung der Rankenpflanzen fortzusetzen—sollte dies aber der Fall sein, so werde ich es als meine erste Aufgabe betrachten, die Thatsachen, welche Sie in Ihrem Werke hervorgehoben, selbst zu beobachten. Hoffentlich werden Echinocystis lobata und Passiflora gracilis bis dahin zu beschaffen sein, doch denke ich, dass auch andere, sehr reizbare Ranken, das nämliche zeigen werden. Wahrscheinlich werden dann wohl bei allen Krümmungen von Ranken die Beziehungen des Längenwachsthums zu der Krümmung anders aufzufassen sein, als ich es früher gethan habe.3

Mich Ihnen höflichst empfehlend | Hochachtungsvoll | Ihr dienstf. Diener | Hugo de Vries.

For a translation of this letter, see Appendix I.
CD had used Echinocystis lobata (wild cucumber) and Passiflora gracilis (annual passionflower) in his research on the twining of tendrils; see Climbing plants 2d ed., pp. 128–34, 153–6. Vries continued to study the causes of tendril curvature in 1879, after having worked out the mechanics of cell growth in plants (letter from Hugo de Vries, 7 August 1879, Calendar no. 12186).

From Hugo de Vries1   17 November 1875

Würzburg

17 Nov 75.

Highly honoured Sir

Please accept my best thanks for your last letter.2 I don’t know whether next summer I will again have the opportunity to further my investigation of climbing plants—but should this be the case I will consider my first task to be to observe for myself the facts you emphasised in your work. Hopefully Echinocystis lobata as well as Passiflora gracilis will be available to me by then, but I believe that other, very sensitive tendrils will display the same phenomena. Probably the relations of longitudinal growth to twisting must, for all curvatures, be interpreted differently from how I had previously done.3

With my best compliments | most respectfully | Your obdt. servant | Hugo de Vries.

For a transcription of this letter in its original German, see pp. 455–6.
CD had used Echinocystis lobata (wild cucumber) and Passiflora gracilis (annual passionflower) in his research on the twining of tendrils; see Climbing plants 2d ed., pp. 128–34, 153–6. Vries continued to study the causes of tendril curvature in 1879, after having worked out the mechanics of cell growth in plants (letter from Hugo de Vries, 7 August 1879, Calendar no. 12186).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10264,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10264