1865 1881] F. MULLER 345 



my paper. As I thought you could not object, I am having Letter 671 

 your letter copied, and will send the paper to the Linnean 

 Society. 1 I have slightly modified the arrangement of some 

 parts and altered only a few words, as you write as good 

 English as an Englishman. 1 do not quite understand your 

 account of the arrangement of the leaves of Strychnos, and I 

 think you use the word " bracteae " differently to what English 

 authors do ; therefore I will get Dr. Hooker to look over your 

 paper. 



I cannot, of course, say whether the Linnean Society will 

 publish your paper ; but I am sure it ought to do so. As the 

 Society is rather poor, I fear that it will give only a few 

 woodcuts from your truly admirable sketches. 



To F. Muller. Letter 672 



In Darwin's book on Climbing Plants, i875, 2 he wrote (p. 205) : " The 

 conclusion is forced on our minds that the capacity of revolving, on 

 which most climbing plants depend, is inherent, though undeveloped, 

 in almost every plant in the vegetable Kingdom " -a conclusion which 

 was verified in the Power of Movement in Plants. The present letter is 

 interesting in referring to Fritz Miiller's observations on the " revolving 

 nutation," or circumnutation of Alisma macrophylla and Linum usitatissi- 

 mum, the latter fact having been discovered by F. Miiller's daughter 

 Rosa. This was probably the earliest observation on the circumnutation 

 of a non-climbing plant, and Muller, in a paper dated 1868, and published 

 in Vol. V. of \hejenaische Zeitschrift, p. 133, calls attention to its import- 

 ance in relation to the evolution of the habit of climbing. The present 

 letter was probably written in 1865, since it refers to Miiller's paper read 

 before the Linnean Soc. on Dec. 7th, 1865. If so, the facts on circum- 

 nutation must have been communicated to Darwin some years before 

 their publication in the Jenaische Zeitschrift. 



Down, Dec. 9th [1865]. 



I have received your interesting letter of October loth, 

 with its new facts on branch-tendrils. If the Linnean Society 

 publishes your paper, 3 as I am sure it ought to do, I will 

 append a note with some of these ne\v facts. 



I forwarded immediately your MS. to Professor Max 



1 "Notes on some of the Climbing Plants near Desterro" [1865], 

 Linn. Soc.Jonrn., IX., 1867. 



2 First given as a paper before the Linnean Society, and published in 

 the Linn. Soc. Journ., Vol. IX. 



3 Ibid., 1867, p. 344. 



