Ɛpsilon

From Anton de Bary   9 August 1879

Dear Sir,

The few experiments on the nutrition of Utricularia, to which your very kind letter of Aug. 5. refers are not sufficiently exact and complete to allow a publication.1 They gave—even more than the poor dry specimens can show—an evidence of the high efficacity of animal food for the vegetation of U. vulgaris; but the growth of my plants was disturbed by the apparition of algae, then by unfavourable temperature etc., and all these obstacles could not be removed in the very bad locality, where I was obliged to make my experiments. If I had got more than evidence, if it had been possible to give somewhat exact numbers and measure, I would not have neglected a short notice on my observation.

These last days I found, in the laboratory, in an old culture, a lot of very small specimens of U. vulgaris, which I believe to be very well fit for the continuation of my old experiments. I have therefore begun some comparative cultures, and I hope that they are now under better conditions than the old ones. As soon as they permit to give some better result, I will beg you the permission to give you a notice on it; and finally the publication shall not be neglected.2

I had great pleasure to see Mr. Fr. Darwin here, and I am only sorry, that his visit was so very short.3 Begging you, to say to him my best compliments, I am, with the highest respect | faithfully yours | A de Bary.

Str. 9. August 79.

2
De Bary never published on Utricularia but in Insectivorous plants 2d ed., p. 365 n., Francis Darwin wrote, ‘The late Professor de Bary showed me at Strasburg two dried specimens of Utricularia (vulgaris?)’ which ‘clearly demonstrated the advantage which this plant derives from captured insects. One had been grown in water swarming with minute crustaceans, the other in clean water; the difference in size between the “fed” and the “starved” plants was most striking.’
3
On his return from Würzburg, Francis Darwin had visited de Bary in Straßburg (Strasbourg); see letter to Anton de Bary, 5 August 1879 and n. 1.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12188,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12188