382 BOTANY [Chap. XI 



Letter 702 your Laugher Pigeons, if the same with the two sub-breeds 

 which I kept, I feel sure from the structure of the skeleton, 

 etc., that it is a descendant of C. livia. In regard to 

 beauty, I do not feel the difficulty which you and some 

 others experience. In the last edition of my Origin 1 I 

 have discussed the question, but necessarily very briefly. A 

 new and I hope amended edition of the Origin is now 

 passing through the press, and will be published in a month 

 or two, and it will give me great pleasure to send you a 

 copy. Is there any place in London where parcels are 

 received for you, or shall I send it by post? With reference 

 to dogs' tails, no doubt you are aware that a rudimentary 

 stump is regularly inherited by certain breeds of sheep-dogs, 

 and by Manx cats. You speak of a change in the position 

 of the axis of the earth : this is a subject quite beyond me, 

 but I believe the astronomers reject the idea. Nevertheless, 

 I have long suspected that some periodical astronomical or 

 cosmical cause must be the agent of the incessant oscillations 

 of level in the earth's crust. About a month ago I suggested 

 this to a man well capable of judging, but he could not con- 

 ceive any such agency ; he promised, however, to keep it in 

 mind. I wish I had time and strength to write to you more 

 fully. I had intended to send this letter off at once, but on 

 reflection will keep it till I receive the plants. 



Letter 703 T ° H - MUller - 2 



Down, March 14th, 1870. 



I think you have set yourself a new, very interesting, and 

 difficult line of research. As far as I know, no one has care- 



1 Fourth Edit, p. 238. 



2 Hermann Miiller (1829-83) began his education in the village school 

 of Muhlberg, and afterwards studied in Halle and Berlin. From an 

 early age he was a keen naturalist, and began his scientific work as a 

 collector in the field. In 1855 he became Science teacher at Lippstadt, 

 where he continued to work during the last twenty-eight years of his life. 

 Midler's greatest contribution to Botany, Die Befruchtung der B lumen 

 durch Insekten, was the outcome of Charles Darwin's book on the 

 Fertilisation of Orchids. He was a frequent contributor to Kosrnos on 

 subjects bearing on the origin of species, the laws of variation, and 

 kindred problems ; like his brother, Fritz, Hermann Miiller was a zealous 

 supporter of evolutionary views, and contributed in no small degree to the 

 spread of the new teaching. (" Prof. Dr. Hermann Miiller von Lippstadt : 

 Ein Gedenkblatt," by Ernst Krause, Kosrnos, Vol. VII., p. 393, 1883.) 



