Ɛpsilon

From Hermann Müller   25 August 1873

Lippstadt,

August 25, 1873.

My dear Sir,

I am very much obliged to you for your kindness in having sent me the number of the “Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical club” containing two articles of especial interest for me and particularly for having sent me some days ago the number of “The Academy” containing a very honorable critique of my work.1 As I do not know whether you are collecting and preserving the numbers of the latter journal, I return it to you.

As you are interested about my brothers researches, I must relate you that he is now about to investigate the most interesting but hitherto very hidden natural history of the Brazilian honey bees (Melipona and Trigona)   He has already the living peoples of different species of them in his house and has acquainted me with many new and interesting facts about them. I try now as completely as possible to obtain the literature about Melipona and Trigona, but till now with little success, the memoirs about this subject being dispersed in various journals and works. I hope, Mr. Frederick Smith, to whom I am obliged already for many assistances, will be good enough to give me the wanting information2

With many thanks | I remain, my dear Sir | yours very sincerely | H Müller.

1
CD probably sent the June 1873 issue of the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club; it contained two notices about fertilisation of flowers by insect agency (see ibid., pp. 21–3). In his letter of 12 May 1873, Müller had asked CD to keep him informed about English publications on the subject of fertilisation. CD also sent a copy of Alfred William Bennett’s review of Müller’s book on the fertilisation of flowers by means of insects (A. W. Bennett 1873b; H. Müller 1873).
2
Fritz Müller began his work on bees while he was reading proofs of H. Müller 1873; initially he tried to find the bee species mentioned by Hermann in that work. Fritz had sent specimens of some Brazilian bees to Hermann who sent them on to Smith for identification (letter from Fritz Müller to Hermann Müller, 15 December 1872 (Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 208–10)). In January 1873, Fritz sent Hermann around forty bee specimens, including nine species that he described as being in the genera Melipona and Trigona (letter from Fritz Müller to Hermann Müller, 29 January 1873 (Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 214–18)). For more on Fritz Müller’s work on stingless honeybees, see Möller ed. 1915–21, 2: 208 ff. and West 2003, pp. 178–82.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9028,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9028