i868 i88i] H, MULLER 419 



and read it with great interest. But it ought not merely to Letter 747 

 be read ; it requires study. The sole criticism which I have 

 to make is that parts are too much condensed : but, good 

 Lord, how rare a fault is this ! You do not quote Saporta, 

 I think ; and some of his work on the Tertiary plants would 

 have been useful to you. In a former note you spoke con- 

 temptuously of your lecture : all I can say is that I never 

 heard any one speak more unjustly and shamefully of 

 another than you have done of yourself ! 



To IT. Miiller. Letter 748 



Down, Sept. 2oth, 1878. 



I am working away on some points in vegetable physiology, 

 but though they interest me and my son, yet they have none 

 of the fascination which the fertilisation of flowers possesses. 

 Nothing in my life has ever interested me more than the 

 fertilisation of such plants as Primula and Ly thrum t or again 

 Anacamptis * or Lister a. 



To H. Muller. Letter 749 



Down, Feb. I2th [1879]. 



I have just heard that some misfortune has befallen you, 

 and that you have been treated shamefully. 2 I grieve deeply 

 to hear this, and as soon as you can find a few minutes to 

 spare, I earnestly beg you to let me hear what has happened. 



To A. Stephen Wilson. Letter 750 



The following letters refer to two forms of wheat cultivated in Russia 

 under the names Kubanka and Saxonka, which had been sent to 

 Mr. Darwin by Dr. Asher from Samara, and were placed in the hands 

 of Mr. Wilson that he might test the belief prevalent in Russia that 

 Kubanka " grown repeatedly on inferior soil," assumes " the form of 



1 Orchis pyra midalis. 



2 Hermann Muller was accused by the Ultramontane party of 

 introducing into his school-teaching crude hypotheses ("tmreife Hypo- 

 thesen"), which were assumed to have a harmful influence upon the 

 religious sentiments of his pupils. Attempts were made to bring about 

 Miiller's dismissal, but the active hostility of his opponents, which he 

 met in a dignified spirit, proved futile. (" Prof. Dr. Hermann Muller 

 von Lippstadt. Ein Gedenkblatt," von Ernst Krause. Kosmos, VII., 

 P- 393, 1883-) 



