From Fritz Müller   16 February 1870

As soon as the Passiflora, which was visited by humming birds in my garden, flowers again next spring, I shall try fully to answer Mr Farrer’s questions.—1

I enclose a dried flower of this Passiflora; the long flower-stalk is dependent, but curved upwards at the end, so that the flower itself is upright.— You see, there is space enough for a hovering humming-birds head between the anthers and the entrance to the (nectarless) nectary.

There is now flowering with me a white Passiflora with dependent flowers, which is visited by humble-bees.—

The enclosed Passiflora-seeds may perhaps be acceptable to Mr Farrer; at least they are from wild, not hybridised plants.2

Fritz Müller

Itajahy, Febr. 16. 1870.

incomplete

1
CD had sent Thomas Henry Farrer an extract from one of Müller’s letters in which Müller said that Passiflora flowers growing in his garden were visited by humming-birds; Farrer had sent CD a couple of questions for Müller (Correspondence vol. 17, letter to T. H. Farrer, [27 November 1869], letter from T. H. Farrer, 28 November 1869, and letter to Fritz Müller, 1 December [1869]).
2
CD sent this portion of Müller’s letter and the seeds to Farrer with his letter to Farrer of 13 [May 1870].

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7108,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7108