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From Hermann Müller   28 December 1876

Dr. Hermann Müller | Oberlehrer | Lippstadt.

Dec. 28. 1876.

My dear Sir,

My brothers address is the same as hitherto “Dr. Fritz Müller, Blumenau, Prov. St. Catharina, Brazil”.1

As far as I know, no paper on heterostyled plants has been published since 1873. As since the appearance of my “Befruchtung” I annually have contributed to Dr. Justs “Bot. Jahresbericht”, reviewing the new papers on fertilisation of flowers, I am fully sure that since this time no paper on heterostyled plants has come into my knowledge.2

I have now finished reading your patient researches on the effects of cross and self-fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom, and presently I am about to review your wonderful work for the “Jenaer Literaturzeitung”. A copy of my review will be sent to you.3

The new edition of your book on Orchids and of your papers on heterostyled plants, you will be convinced of, is of the highest interest to me4

Yours very sincerely | Hermann Müller.

1
In his letter of 6 December 1876, Müller had communicated the news of his brother Fritz’s appointment as travelling naturalist at the National Museum, Rio de Janeiro. CD had written to congratulate Fritz in his letter of 11 December 1876; no letter to Hermann enquiring about Fritz’s address has been found.
2
Müller’s Die Befruchtung der Blumen durch Insekten und die gegenseitigen Anpassungen beider (The fertilisation of flowers by means of insects and their mutual adaptations; H. Müller 1873) was published in 1873. He contributed to Leopold Just’s review of botanical literature, Botanischer Jahresbericht: systematisch geordnetes Repertorium der botanischen Literatur aller Länder, which was first published in 1874.
3
Müller’s review of Cross and self fertilisation appeared in Jenaer Literaturzeitung 1877, pp. 178–81. CD’s copy is in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL.
4
Orchids 2d ed. and Forms of flowers, which contained revised versions of CD’s earlier papers on heterostyled plants, were published in 1877.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10736,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10736