276 THE 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES.' [i860. 



a barrister. What an omission of Harvey's about the 

 graduated state of the flowers ! But what strikes me most is 

 that surely I ought to know my own book best, yet, by Jove, 

 you have brought forward ever so many arguments which 

 I did not think of! Your reference to classification (viz. I 

 presume to such cases as Aspicarpa) is excellent, for the 

 monstrous Begonia no doubt in all details would be a Be- 

 gonia. I did not think of this, nor of the retrograde step from 

 separated sexes to an hermaphrodite state ; nor of the 

 lessened fertility of the monster. Proh pudor to me. 



The world would say what a lawyer has been lost in a mere 

 botanist ! 



Farewell, my dear master in my own subject, 



Yours affectionately, 



C. Darwin. 



I am so heartily pleased to see that you approve of the 

 chapter on Classification. 



I wonder what Harvey will say. But no one hardly, I think, 

 is able at first to see when he is beaten in an argument. 



[The following letters refer to the first translation (i860) of 

 the ' Origin of Species ' into German, which was superintended 

 by H. G. Bronn, a good zoologist and palaeontologist, who 

 was at the time at Freiburg, but afterwards Professor at 

 Heidelberg. I have been told that the translation was not a 

 success, it remained an obvious translation, and was cor- 

 respondingly unpleasant to read. Bronn added to the trans- 

 lation an appendix on the difficulties that occurred to him. 

 For instance, how can natural selection account for differences 

 between species, when these differences appear to be of no 

 service to their possessors ; e.g., the length of the ears and 

 tail, or the folds in the enamel of the teeth of various species 

 of rodents? Krause, in his book, ' Charles Darwin,' p. 91, 

 criticises Bronn's conduct in this matter, but it will be seen 

 that my father actually suggested the addition of Bronn's 



