Ɛpsilon

To Fritz Müller   22 October 1881

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.) [66 Hills Road, Cambridge.]

Oct 22d. 1881

My dear Sir

I must write a few words to thank you for the seeds & for your letter of Sept 6th..1 The case of the Crotalaria is most remarkable in many ways, & I am extremely glad that you have sent an account of this plant to Kosmos.2 I am writing this note in Cambridge, where I have come to stay with one of my sons & get a little rest, of which I stood in much need.3 I saw F. Balfour last night. I am now reading his Comparative Embryology, which seems to me a wonderful book. I hope that you received the copy which he sent you through me.4 I read lately your most interesting paper on Atyoidea in Kosmos.5

With all good wishes & thanks | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

I sent you a copy the other day of my little book on Earth-worms,—a subject of no importance but which has long interested me.—6

2
In his letter of 6, 7, and 9 September 1881, Müller had described the nyctitropic movements of Crotalaria cajanaefolia (a misspelling of C. cajanifolia, chipilin). Müller’s article on Crotalaria cajanaefolia appeared in Kosmos, December 1881 (F. Müller 1881c).
3
The Darwins visited Cambridge, staying with their son Horace Darwin and his wife, Ida, from 20 to 27 October 1881 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
4
CD had received two copies of Balfour 1880–1 and arranged with Balfour to send the spare copy to Müller as a gift from Balfour (see letter to F. M. Balfour, 6 July 1881, and letter from F. M. Balfour, 10 July 1881).
5
Müller’s paper was ‘Atyoida Potimirim, eine schlammfressende Süsswassergarneele’ (Atyoida Potimirim, a mud-eating freshwater shrimp; F. Müller 1881a). Atyoida potimirim is a synonym of Potimirim potimirim, the tiny or neon shrimp.
6
Müller’s name is on CD’s presentation list for Earthworms (see Appendix IV).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added
3.2 but] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13419,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13419