Briefe. 
The slit on the side is shut by two rows of hairs inserted on the margin 
of Ihe valves; so you may conserve the open* capsules for a long time without 
a Single seed falling out, whereas on blowing from beneath you will drive them 
out in a moment. In several other cases, in which hairs on the valves, or hair- 
like processes on the orifice of the capsules are combined with extremely small 
seeds (as in a great number of Orchids, in the hepaticae and the peristom of 
mosses) their use seems to be very different from what it is in Gesneria. 
I am to Start to morrow for botanical excursion on the continent, where I 
intend to spend a couple of weeks, and I hope I shall not return without some 
interesting news. 
With every good-wish and profound respect believe me Dear Sir very 
sincerely yours 
Fritz Müller. 
An Fritz Müller von Darwin. 
Down-Bromley Kent. 22. February (1867) 
received March 24/67. 
My dear Sir 
Your last letter of Jan. i is more valuable to me even than some of your previous 
ones. The fact about the own poUen being poisonous is quite extraordinary ; I will 
quote your remarks and explanation after giving your former facts. Can the cause of 
the decay be due to parasitic cryptogams ? I should be very much obliged to you if 
you would informe me soon whether Oncidium flexuosum is a native of your district. 
These observations of yours will De a most valuable addition to my discussion on seif- 
impotent plants. There never was a more curious case than that of the rudimentary 
condition of the Organs in Catasetum. It explains the fact, which I have been assured 
of, that Catasetum in some countries not rarely produces seed-capsules. Your facts also 
about the sucking in of the pollen-masses and of the dispersal of the seeds in Gesneria 
are all quite new to me. I hope you keep a record of all your miscellaneous observa- 
tions, for you might thus hereafter publish a wonderful book 
Die Fortsetzung dieses Briefes findet sich in Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, 
Vol. III, p. III. 
An Darwin 1). 
Desterro, Febr. 2. 1867. 
My dear Sir 
I am much obliged to you for your kind letter (without date) in which you 
ask about the number of capsules produced by the Maxillaria with the larger 
pods. 1 am told by a french collector M. Gautier that it is the Maxillaria tetra- 
gona; however his names are not always to be relied upon. — On large plants 
growing on rocks and covering often more than a square-foot 3'OU may sometimes 
find half a dozen or more, whilst smaUer plants growing on trees yield rarely 
more than one or two ^). I think that hardly 20 7o of the flowers produce seed- 
1) Nach einem im Nachlass vorgefundenen Concepte. Herausgeber. 
2) Animals and Plants under Domestication, II, p. 379, Anm. : „Fritz Müller informs me that he 
found in a capsule of a Maxillaria, that the seed weighed 42^/2 grains: he then arranged half a grain of 
seed in a narrow line, and by counting a measured length found the number in the half-grain to be 20667, 
so that in the capsule there must have been 1 756440 seeds! The same plant sometimes produces half- 
a-dozen capsules." 
