lo INTRODUCTION 



numerous admirable works on flower pollination, e. g. on adaptations for securing 

 pollination in Posoqueria (1866) and Heeria, on humming-bird-flowers, on a poison- 

 like action of pollen in cases of self-pollination, and on di- and tri-morphous plants 

 of Brazil. 



The individual investigations contained in numerous different periodicals made 

 it necessary to collate and group the results. This was first done in the work 



bom on March 31, 1822, was the eldest son of Pastor Miiller, Windischholzhausen, who was 

 afterwards removed to Mlihlberg, near Gotha. His mother was a daughter of J. Earth. Tromsdorf, 

 the chemist of Erfurt. Fritz Miiller, along with his brother Hermann, first attended the village 

 school at Miihlberg under Rector Tanzer, and was afterwards prepared by his father for the 

 gymnasium. In Erfurt he entered the third class, and there he passed the leaving examination. 

 Thereafter, he prepared at Naumburg for the study of Pharmacy; but from 1840 onwards, he 

 studied Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Berlin and Greifswald. After passing his examination 

 as teacher, he spent his probation year at the gymnasium in Erfurt. With a view to making 

 expeditions to foreign parts, he next studied Medicine, in the hope of becoming a naval surgeon. 

 In 1852 he emigrated to South America. First he settled in Blumenau as a farmer, and afterwards 

 went to the Lyceum in Desterro. 



To this period belong his chief studies on marine animals {Crustacea). In 1864 his work 

 ' Fiir Darwin ' appeared. In 1865, after being driven by the Jesuits from his office, he returned to 

 Blumenau as travelling naturalist of the province of Santa Catharina, and there he remained till the 

 end of his life on May 21, 1897. 



To this period also belong the following events of importance in his career : 



In 1884 (September): journey to the sea with his step-brother, Karl Miiller, Professor of 

 Zoology in Greifswald, who returned to Germany in June, 1885. 



In 1885 he became acquainted with Eichler's Bliitendiagramme, on the plan of which he worked 

 through the Brazilian flora. 



In 1886 he reported on excursions which he made with E. Ule; then he spent two memorable 

 months with the German scientists Schimper and Schenck, who remained till November 11. To this 

 time belong his chief investigations on figs, and fig-wasps. 



In 1888 he received from Dr. Alfred MoUer (assistant to Prof. Brefeld, in Miinster), his work on 

 the culture of Lichen-forming Ascomycetes without Algae ; and to his joy recognized a nephew 

 in the author. By this work, and also stimulated by E. Fischer (Phalloideae) and F. Ludwig, 

 he was led to procure and study De Bary's ' Morphologic und Biologic der Pilze.' 



In 1889 he was introduced by Ludwig to the writings of Brefeld, and later he received from 

 Brefeld a treatise, and soon adopted his views on Mycology. 



In 1889 the Brazilian Revolution broke out, and came to a temporary end on the expulsion 

 of Dom Pedro, his friend and patron. 



To the year 1890 belongs the visit of Alfred Moller, subsequently head-forester in Idstein, near 

 "Wiesbaden, and now Professor at the Academy of Forestry in Eberswalde. As Schimper and 

 Schenck, under F. Miiller's guidance, took back valuable treasures for German science (ant-plants, 

 tropical epiphytes, and the like), so, under his uncle's superintendence, MoUer's works on Hymeno- 

 lichenes, Brazilian fungus-flowers, and fungus gardens of South American ants, &c., were produced. 



Affairs in Brazil went from bad to worse. The new Government intimated to him without 

 explanation that he was removed from his office and would receive no more pay. The album that 

 was sent to him by German naturalists for his seventieth birthday reached him only on 

 October 5, 1892. Letters were frequently not delivered at all at his address. In 1893 there was 

 a battle in the neighbourhood of Blumenau. The revolutionaries robbed him of part of his property, 

 and imprisoned him for eight days, and he was indebted for the preservation of his life only to 

 a fortunate accident. 



In 1894 his wife died on her 68th birthday. Two of his six daughters are married in 

 Blumenau, one of them in Buenos Ayres. His grandchildren, Fritz and Hans Lorenz, are 

 naturalists. They possess keen powers of observation and a warm interest in natural processes, like 

 their grandfather, whom Charles Darwin justly named a ' prince of observers.' In the Bot. 

 Centralblatt, Ixxi, there appeared a full biography of Fritz Miiller from the pen of F. Ludwig. 



